Bush signs anti-spam legislation

WASHINGTON — President Bush signed legislation Tuesday aimed at reducing spam, the annoying commercial messages that have been jamming electronic mailboxes.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 imposes fines and prison terms on spammers who harvest e-mail addresses from the Internet or use false information in the subject line to deceive recipients.

Starting Jan. 1, consumers who receive banned e-mail will be urged to contact the Federal Trade Commission, which is being spurred by Congress to enforce the law aggressively.

The 117 million Americans who use e-mail have grown increasingly angry about the tidal wave of unwanted messages, commonly called spam. Business owners also have been complaining about having workers' time and computer resources tied up by messages touting pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and pills.

"It costs U.S. businesses," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It has become a big burden on consumers."

Some consumer groups object to the new law because it supersedes tougher state laws, such as the one passed recently in California. And many technology experts question whether the law will be effective in curbing spam from other countries.

Still, the legislation won nearly unanimous support in Congress, as well as the blessing of the White House.

Bush signed the bill at a private ceremony in the Oval Office, where he was joined by lawmakers who drafted the legislation and executives from Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, EarthLink Inc. and eBay Inc.

Garry Betty, chief executive officer of EarthLink, the Atlanta-based Internet service provider, said in an interview after the signing that the new law will reduce spam.

By including criminal penalties, "it provides teeth," Betty said. "It gives you a federal statute to provide some consistency about how you can go after spammers."

For years, Internet service providers have been fighting spam with software filters and lawsuits. For example, in May, EarthLink won a $16.4 million judgment against Howard Carmack, known as the "Buffalo Spammer," and shut down his operation, which had generated more than 825 million spam e-mails. --> But the threat of jail time will be an even better deterrent than lawsuits, Betty predicted.

Many spammer techniques "are against the law now," he said.

After several years of failed attempts to work out legislation, Congress gave its final approval this month.