Hatch, Leahy team up with plan to fight spam

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee is infamous for its bitter fights over court nominees. But members found an issue so deeply heartfelt Thursday that it united them in a clarion call for tough-as-nails action: e-mail spam.

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BORDER="1"> FACE="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" SIZE="2">Additional information: FACE="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" SIZE="2"> Web sites: Senate bill 1293 Hatch statement on "Criminal Spam Act of 2003" Google directory of spam spamNEWS www.unspam.com Related sites: National Do Not Call Registry

Members from both parties waxed poetic about how much they hate it — even to the point of suggesting creation of a federal "do-not-spam" registry, not unlike the "do-not-call" telemarketing list.

The committee members passed —19-0, no less — a bill written by the odd couple of Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's ranking Democrat.

"Rarely a minute passes without American consumers and their children being bombarded with e-mail messages promoting pornographic Web sites, illegally pirated software, bogus charities, pyramid schemes and other get-rich-quick … scams," Hatch said.

Leahy noted that he won't let his grandson use the computer without watching him for fear of pornographic spam. He said any e-mail address seems to attract it quickly. "The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) found spam arriving at its computer system just nine minutes after posting an e-mail address in an online chat room," he said.

Their bill would outlaw any unsolicited e-mail that uses deceptive "subject lines" or disguises its true sender. It also outlaws sending viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other types of hidden and damaging codes.

It also outlaws usurping other computer systems to send mass spam. Hatch noted, "By year's end, it is estimated that 50 percent of all e-mail traffic will be spam."