Briefs

Washington Post (06/20/03) P. E5; Krim, Jonathan

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved legislation yesterday to combat unwanted commercial e-mail, as the first of several anti-spam bills in both houses of Congress advanced.

The "Can Spam Act of 2003," sponsored by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), takes aim at bulk e-mailers that disguise their identities, peddle pornography or scams, and fail to honor consumers' requests to stop receiving e-mail advertising.

Spammers would also be barred from using special software to collect e-mail addresses from Web sites and from using programs that generate millions of e-mail addresses using random numbers and letters.

The bill was quickly endorsed by major providers of e-mail accounts, including Microsoft Corp., America Online, Yahoo Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Internet auctioneer eBay Inc.

But anti-spam organizations and some consumer groups organizations argue that the Can Spam Act will only cause unsolicited marketing to surge, and believe that consumers should only receive commercial email if they specifically request it.

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