WASHINGTON – Senator Joe Lieberman today joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in introducing legislation aimed at controlling the proliferation of “spam,” or unsolicited commercial E-mail, on the Internet.

“Spam E-mails are often nothing more than thinly disguised invitations to visit pornographic Web sites, which should concern parents everywhere,” Lieberman said. “Even when spam isn’t X-rated, it is too often trash, camouflaging marketing ploys, pyramid schemes, mindless chain letters, and other unwanted solicitations. Spam intentionally misleads, with cryptic or deceptive subject headers that convey a false sense of the E-mail’s true contents. It is costly, destructive, and an invasion of our privacy.”

The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act would:

Require spammers to include a valid return address on unsolicited commercial E-mail and honor “opt-out” requests by those who receive spam,
Prohibit misleading routing information and subject header forgery,
Empower Internet Service Providers (ISP) to post legally enforceable spam policies, and allow ISPs to require payment for the privilege of sending spam,
Authorize the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pursue violations of the law, and
Require the FTC to perform a study within 18 months of the bill’s passage detailing its effectiveness and recommending necessary changes.

“Spam undermines the viability of the Internet by burdening service providers who are forced to pass on the costs of fighting spam to consumers,” Lieberman said. “This legislation would impose common-sense boundaries on the purveyors of unsolicited commercial E-mail. Our objective is not to strangle the Internet with government regulation or to ban spam outright. Rather, we simply set out to give individuals control of their own E-mail accounts.”

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