A new anti-spam law (SB 877) was signed on December 16, 2003. Among other things, the new law requires senders of commercial email to allow recipients to opt out of receiving certain messages. The new law supersedes all existing state anti-spam laws. The new law also calls for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop a plan for establishing a “Do Not Spam” registry similar to its "Do Not Call" registry within six months of enactment.
It is unclear whether the federal anti-spam law will apply to nonprofit email messages. Application of the law to nonprofits is dependent on how the Federal Trade Commission interprets the term “commercial email.” The law does, however, exempt email "relationship" messages that provide information regarding status or account balance information concerning memberships or subscriptions.
The new law requires that all commercial email contain:
- a valid return email address
- header information accurately identifying the sender of the email
- a valid physical address of the sender
- clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, and
- clear notice of and a method for opting out of receiving commercial messages from that sender.
Enforcement of the new law would come primarily from the FTC. However, the law also allows state attorneys general to bring civil actions on behalf of state residents for anti-spam violations. It does not provide a private right of action for email recipients. In addition, the measure asks the FTC to consider a system for rewarding citizens who supply the FTC with information about spam violations.
The law includes criminal penalties for certain practices, such as using automatic software programs to harvest email addresses from websites or using someone else's computer without authorization to send spam, and requires the FTC to establish labeling rules for messages containing sexually oriented material. The law also applies to commercial messages sent to wireless cell phones. |
