California will have what's considered the nation's widest-reaching anti-spam law come January 1. Even as a recall against him was reinstated for October, after the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a three-judge panel of the court, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill that bans most commercial e-mail messages to anyone in California who didn't ask for them explicitly.
The new law also bans companies inside California from sending spam to those outside. Fines hit $1,000 per message or up to $1 million per campaign, according to the bill's language.
"We are saying," said state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), the bill's sponsor, "that unsolicited e-mail cannot be sent and there are no loopholes."
Murray had said previously that earlier attempts to sock spam legislatively were ineffective because they aimed mostly at the senders. "In addition to the senders, this bill goes after the real beneficiaries of SPAM...the advertisers," he said. "It is much more difficult for advertisers to shield themselves from prosecution. Without advertisers there is no SPAM."
The Direct Marketing Association might take issue with that. Though the group has been known for opposing several anti-spam measures, the DMA accused the new California law of coming from politics and not practicality. They and other critics also say the California law won't stop the shady offshore spammers who push far more objectionable material than just sales products.
"The people sending the latest penis enlargement schemes are not going to pay attention to this," said DMA president H. Robert Wientzen to the New York Times. "This is a group of politicians trying to cash in on a popular issue and will create more confusion and problems than solutions."
"We don't differentiate between Disney and Viagra," Murray said after the bill was signed. "If you go out and rent a list of e-mail addresses, by definition you are not a legitimate business. You are the person we are trying to stop."
The new law lets individuals file private lawsuits, similar to a provision in junk fax laws which often gets credit for ensuring compliance, the Times said.
