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CAUCE NEWS
Volume 6, Number 2
June, 2002
In this issue:
* Progress of Senate anti-spam bill
* European Union bans spam
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHY YOU GOT THIS MESSAGE: Please see the
"About This Message" section at the end.
- --------------------------------------------------------------
* Progress of Senate anti-spam bill
Over a year ago, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) introduced S.630, the CAN
SPAM Act of 2001. This bill would require UCE to have a valid return
address to facilitate consumers' removal from spam lists. It would
place enforcement in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission, and
state Attorneys General. It would also permit Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) to enforce violations, up to $10 per illegal spam.
It would preempt any stricter state anti-spam laws.
The Senate Commerce Committee considered the bill on May 17th, and
reported it out largely unchanged.  It's not now scheduled for further
action in the Senate.
CAUCE has always opposed this bill, since we believe it would lead to
more spam, not less.  When South Korea passed a similar opt-out law
last year, spam from Korea soon increased by a factor of 10.
Our April 2001 press release goes into more detail about the problems
with S.630:
http://www.cauce.org/pressreleases/pr-s630.shtml
We're pleased that the Congress is looking at spam issues again, and
hope that in the future we can help them create an effective bill that
the entire Internet community can support.
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* European Union bans spam
GLOBAL INTERNET COMMUNITY APPLAUDS EUROPEAN ANTI-SPAM VOTE
May 31, 2002 - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail
(CAUCE), EuroCAUCE, CAUCE India, CAUCE Canada and the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Bulk E-Mail, Australia (CAUBE.au) today applauded the decision
by the European Parliament to protect European Internet users from the
practice of unsolicited e-mail advertisements. Yesterday's vote will turn
Europe into a virtual "spam-free zone" after the formal adoption of the
directive, making it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail, text message or
other similar advertisements to individuals with whom companies do not
have a preexisting business relationship.
"This is a tremendous day for European Internet users," said EuroCAUCE
Chairman George Mills. "We are extremely pleased that the European
Parliament has listened to the citizens of its member countries and added
the right to be left alone by spammers to its efforts to protect the
privacy of Europeans."
While six European Union member countries had already formalized "opt-in"
in their national laws and regulations, yesterday's vote should turn all
of Europe into a spam-free zone by the end of 2003.
"Unfortunately, the rest of the world's Internet-using countries,
including the United States, now lag behind Europe in their protection
of Internet users," said CAUCE Chairman Scott Hazen Mueller. "This is
a tremendous first step, but the rest of the world now needs to follow
Europe's lead and unite behind protection of Internet users and
network owners from abusive and costly unsolicited e-mail
advertising."
"This decision is the direct result of Internet users throughout the
European Union standing up for their rights, and Members of the
European Parliament listening to their constituents," said Mills. "Our
members and our volunteers performed an integral part of this process,
translating, lobbying and educating their representatives."
More information on the E.U. directive is available on the European
Parliament's Web site <http://www.europarl.eu.int/press/index_en.htm>,
and a EuroCAUCE analysis is available at
<http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/amendments1a.html>. More information on
the international CAUCE network of affiliate organizations is
available at <http://www.cauce.org>.
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About This Message:
This message was written and broadcast by the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. It is copyrighted (c) 2002 by the
Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.
We encourage redistribution of this message or items from it, as long
as they are not spammed anywhere, are on-topic for any forum to which
you send them, and include our copyright notice.  When in doubt, post
the URL of our site (http://www.cauce.org) instead, or put it in your
signature.  Press, broadcast, and Internet media may treat this
material as they would a press release. For other commercial
reproduction rights, contact John Levine <johnl@cauce.org>.
*************************************************************************
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*************************************************************************
For other questions or comments about this message, contact John
Levine <johnl@cauce.org>.
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