News 

It also bans deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages. The law makes spam containing unmarked sexually-oriented material a criminal offence. Under the law, spammers must place warning labels on messages containing sexually-oriented or pornographic material or face fines or jail.

The Federal Trade Commission has been asked to look into setting up a "do-not-email` registry.
The Bill has been criticised in various quarters by allowing unsolicited emails to be sent even though a receiver can 'opt-out' afterwards.

This is in contrast to recently enacted EU laws which requires companies to only send emails to people who

ADVERTISEMENT

have 'opted in'.

In a chatroom QA, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Tim Muris said `spammers are not likely to comply with any requirement of choice. For legitimate spammers, if that term is not an oxymoron, an opt-out rule has real promise, as long as the opt-out is easy to use'.

`There is no magic bullet to stop spam,` he said. `The solution will require technology, self-help, and enforcement.`

In general though, US companies welcomed the introduction of the Bill. In a statement Yahoo! said ` 'Spam is an ever-growing threat to consumers and businesses - with increasing impact on America's economy. This legislation is a victory for consumers and the Internet. 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.'

AOL, America's biggest ISP went even further, saying that the Bill was 'a huge step forward for our millions of members who loathe the offensive and unwanted junk email forced into their mailboxes by fraudulent means. And it's an unmistakable shot-across-the-bow for the spammers who use such outlaw tactics of fraud and evasion.'