Perdue: Make Spamming a Felony
Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 1/19/2005 6:49:57 PM


ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgians who flood the Internet with spam e-mail could be charged with a felony under a bill proposed Wednesday by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The Georgia Slam Spam E-Mail Act would punish spammers with a felony if they send more than 10,000 false or misleading messages in one day, generate large amounts of money from spam, or use minors to help them transmit the e-mails. The bill also outlines misdemeanor charges for lesser violations.

“I urge the General Assembly to pass the Slam Spam E-Mail Act so that Georgians can once again check their e-mail without having to wade through a cesspool of spam,” Perdue said at the headquarters of EarthLink, the Atlanta-based Internet service provider which endorses the proposed legislation.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states have laws policing junk e-mail. Many are written to work alongside the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which prohibits fraudulent and deceptive commercial e-mail and requires senders to include information allowing recipients to opt out of receiving future messages.

Pam Greenberg, who monitors spam legislation for the NCSL, said at least three other states have felony crimes against e-mail abuses.

“That’s been the trend in the past few years—to toughen those penalties and work in conjunction with the federal act,” she said.

Criminal penalties for felonies under Perdue’s plan include up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine. The misdemeanor charge would include up to a $1,000 fine and one year in prison.

The bill would enable Internet service providers, like EarthLink, and domain owners to bring charges against spammer who use their services.

Perdue said the plan narrowly defines spam as commercial e-mail that makes false promises or is misleading—such as advertisements with headers that disguise them as personal messages. He said the bill would not affect legitimate online advertising.

“We don’t want to overregulate this,” Perdue said.

Perdue said the state law would only allow prosecution of spammers based in Georgia, but he said he hoped other states will continue to enact similar laws.

EarthLink CEO Garry Betty said about 80 percent of all e-mails are spam. He said his company processes about 250 million e-mail messages daily, blocking “tens of millions” of attempted spam messages.

“Internet protection proposals like Gov. Perdue’s are a key component in fighting online fraud and letting cyber criminals know that they will face severe penalties if they continue to send deceptive commercial e-mails,” Betty said.

EarthLink advocated for the federal anti-spam law and has worked with government and law enforcement agencies to fight online crime.

The company filed charges against 37-year-old Howard H. Carmack -- the so-called “Buffalo spammer”-- for using EarthLink to send more than 825 million junk e-mail messages and using stolen identities to try to avoid being stopped.

He was convicted on 14 counts in March of last year, becoming the first person convicted under New York’s state identity theft statute. EarthLink also obtained a $16.4 million civil judgment against Carmack in May 2003.
http://11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=57698
Way to go Governor Perdue!!!!!!

GO GA! SPAM SUCKS!

It should be. It's harrasment. The sooner we're rid of it the better.

Let me go dust of the electric chair

Ugh hotmail gave me so much spam in my old account that I stopped using the damn thing
I wish I could remember my password, I want to see how much spam is piled up in that thing.

This is the start of a major update on internet laws; They'll soon cover spyware too

There are places that already do cover spyware...but yes, this is a step in the right direction. Spam isn't like junkmail, where you can just throw it away...it actually interferes with what you're trying to do by leaping out at you over and over again

Yeah down with spam!!!!! Really though it's annoying and unecessary, who here amongst us actaully reads it when they get it? I have no problem with advertising your website or product but spam is not they way to do it.

Spam wouldn't be so bad if the products were at least aimed at the right people, I for instance have no use for penis extensions or lesbian porn, yet I get spam about it at least once a day! What happened to market research!