ABA Family Legal Guide

Computer Law

Internet Issues

Spam

Can the law regulate spam?

Only the spammers like spam, but is massive disapproval enough to do it in? As of 2003, legislators in about half of the states had passed anti-spam laws, but many have low penalties. Moreover, the fact that states have boundaries but the Internet does not may make enforcement difficult because of jurisdictional problems.

One of the latest laws, in Virginia, imposes harsh felony penalties for sending spam by deceptive means, such as forging the return address line of an e-mail message or hacking a computer to send spam. Those found guilty of sending more than ten thousand deceptive messages in one day could serve prison terms and forfeit profits and assets. Since Virginia is the home of AOL and other major Internet providers, half of all Internet traffic flows through the state, lessening jurisdictional problems.

Doubting that state laws would do the trick, in late 2003 Congress passed a law to address the problem nationally. The law, which took effect the first day of 2004, bans sending bulk commercial e-mail using false identities and misleading subject lines. All commercial e-mail messages now have to include valid postal address and give recipients opportunity to opt out of receiving more messages.