House OKs measure aimed at spammers

Congress moved closer to approving the first federal law outlawing unsolicited commercial e-mail late yesterday when the House passed an antispam bill.

“This is a huge piece of consumer-protection legislation,” Rep. Billy Tauzin, Louisiana Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said before a voice vote approving the measure.

The Senate passed a similar measure last month, and House and Senate negotiators yesterday reached agreement on the bill approved by the House.

The Senate is expected to approve changes to the bill next week before it is sent to the president.

The House antispam bill would allow spammers to send unsolicited e-mail to consumers until they ask the business to stop. Spammers would face penalties if they ignore the requests.

Consumer groups said that opt-out approach will do little to address the flood of spam because it places the burden on consumers to contact marketers when they don’t want to receive e-mail.

Lawmakers should assume consumers don’t want to receive spam unless they contact marketers and ask for the e-mail pitches, or opt in, said Laura Atkins, president of SpamCon Foundation, a group opposing spam.

“Anything less is consumer unfriendly,” she said.

But lawmakers argued the spam law is significant.

For the first time, consumers would be able to tell companies to stop sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, said Rep. Heather A. Wilson, the New Mexico Republican who was among the first to draw attention to spam more than four years ago.

“We put together a good bill,” she said during debate on the House floor.

The measure approved by the House also gives the Federal Trade Commission authority to set up a “do-not-spam” registry similar to the agency’s “do-not-call” list that lets consumers block telemarketing calls.

FTC Chairman Timothy Muris has said he doesn’t think a “do-not-spam” registry will be effective because spammers can easily hide their identities and cross international borders.

But yesterday he vowed to help Congress fight spam.

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