Failed Federal Legislation

The Murkowski Amendment

UPDATE! Senator Murkowski has reintroduced his original pro-spam legislation, originally appearing as an amendment to the telephone anti-slamming bill in the 105th Congress. The new bill, known as the "Inbox Privacy Act", has been introduced to the 106th Congress as S.759. "Inbox Privacy Act" sounds good until you see the details, discussed later in this section.

One System Administrator (Clifton T. Sharp) has proposed a Doomsday Scenario explaining what might happen if spam email is regulated and thereby legitimized.

The Original Legislation: S.1618 / HR.3888

Pro-Spam Federal Legislation, authored by Senator Frank Murkowski, is sometimes discussed using semi-legalese wording in an effort by the sender to justify sending the message. A typical disclaimer would read:

Under Bill S.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this letter Can Not be Considered Spam as long as we include the way to be removed.To be removed from future mailings Free, simply respond with "REMOVE" in the subject line. Or go to our web address page to click on our remove list and enter your email address we already have REMOVE IN THE SUBJECT TITLE there.

** This message complies with the proposed United States Federal requirements for commercial email bill, Section 301. For additional info see: http://www.senate.gov/~murkowski/commercialemail/EMailAmendText.html

An Effective Response

In your complaint, stress that the "commercial email bill" (Senate Resolution S 1618 / House Resolution HR 3888) was amended in early September of 1998 to require the private sector to enforce measures designed to prevent the improper use of unsolicted commercial electronic email. Title III/Section 301 was completely removed from the language of the bill. According to the proposed legislation, your complaint fully complies with Title II, Section 201(2):

TITLE II--SPAMMING
SEC. 201. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--

1. in order to avoid interference with the rapid development and expansion of commerce over the Internet, the Congress should decline to enact regulatory legislation with respect to unfair or intrusive practices on the Internet that the private sector can, given a sufficient opportunity, deter or prevent; and
2. it is the responsibility of the private sector to use that opportunity promptly to adopt, implement, and enforce measures to deter and prevent the improper use of unsolicited commercial electronic mail.

Caution! HR 3888 expired at the end of 1998 when it died in committee. Since it never was approved by Congress and signed into law by the President, it cannot be called a "law" or enforced as a "law". Your complaint regards the violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, which *is* enforcable.

Although it might be tempting to quote the expired S 1618 / HR 3888 in all of your complaints, it only makes sense to include it if the spammer uses it first.

The New Legislation: S.759

UPDATE! Sen. Murkowski tried again during the 106th Congress with "Inbox Privacy Act" S.759, which would reattempt to legitimize unsolicited advertising email. Ignoring the fact the Sen. Murkowski's provision was tacked on to an extremely popular Telephone Anti-Slamming Bill, his press release has the gall and audacity to ignore the massive opposition expressed by the voters to his provision by stating "Similar legislation was passed by the Senate in the 105th Congress by a vote of 99-0 although a final conference between the House and Senate could not be scheduled prior to adjournment."

Given the massive input by the voters regarding his amendment to the bill, the House Telecommunications subcommittee did more than just strip the Murkowski language from the bill. It was replaced with completely new language, clearly stating:

"the Congress should decline to enact regulatory legislation with respect to unfair or intrusive practices on the Internet that the private sector can, given a sufficient opportunity, deter or prevent."

Needless to say, this legislation did not see the light of day, either.