Briefs

MSNBC (04/10/03) reports that Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced a bill on Thursday that aims to reduce the amount of spam clogging Internet users' in-boxes by requiring online marketers to include valid return addresses in the messages, giving consumers the power to block unwanted solicitations.

The Can-Spam bill supported by Burns and Wyden, if passed, would allow ISPs to remove spammers who violate the law from their networks, and authorize the FCC to fine such violators. AOL, eBay, Yahoo!, and other Internet companies are backing the bill, as is the Direct Marketing Association, which concluded that legitimate online marketers are being negatively impacted by the spread of spam. Yahoo! stated that it is behind the Can-Spam bill "because it provides for effective deterrents, penalties and marketing rules that would give consumers and email service providers additional protection from unsolicited commercial email." Under the bill, marketers that are asked to remove consumers' names from mass email lists would not be allowed to send them anymore unsolicited email.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/898578.asp

According to other industry statistics, Spam accounted for 8 percent of the world's e-mail in late 2001. As of April of 2003, 40 percent of e-mail is spam, says Brightmail. Junk e-mail doubled in the last six months.