In Can CAN-SPAM Can Spam?, Brady Johnson in TidBITS writes on the new federal anti-spam act. It is no surprise that the law is a massive act of nullification of state laws, “One heavily criticized component of the Act is the provision preempting all state laws addressing spam with certain very limited exceptions.” Also a few exceptions to this heroic federal effort to stop spam are included in the law, including (I’m shocked!) political spam:
…to many folks, “spam” simply refers to any unwanted email from a stranger trying to sell a product, tout a position, advertise a commercial Web site, or sway the reader’s opinion in some way. As anti-spam legislation has been enacted in the various states, the definition has morphed and narrowed to “unwanted commercial email” or “UCE,” exempting non-commercial email such as political or charitable solicitations. CAN-SPAM narrows this definition even further.
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As a professional computer consultant, I can assure you that technology is a far better way to deal with spam than legislation. This legislation will do NOTHING to stop spam originating from outside of the United States.
Why do politicians always feel they must DO something about a problem?
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