If you missed it, President Bush signed, what some say, is a major piece of legislation against the daily nuisance known as spam dubbed the
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. But others say the bill won't cut it:
Web portal and e-mail giant Yahoo was quick to hail the bill's enactment.
"This legislation is a victory for consumers and the Internet," Yahoo said in a statement. "It provides businesses with important new legal weapons in the ongoing battle against spam. And it supplements the current technological, educational and legal tools Yahoo and others are using to fight this threat," the company said.
But the law has raised alarm among some spam fighters because it would legalize sending nonfraudulent spam and zap state laws that in some cases prohibit that practice. At least 34 states have slapped regulations on bulk e-mail, with some jurisdictions going much farther than Washington, D.C. Washington state has granted e-mail recipients the right to sue spammers, and California and Delaware have mandated an "opt-in" approach that prohibits unsolicited commercial e-mail without a prior business relationship.
Richard