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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: House passes antispam bill - Bans all anonymous business on the internet . You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

House passes antispam bill - Bans all anonymous business on the internet
by Decius at 6:34 pm EST, Nov 22, 2003

] Falsifying e-mail header information or using either a
] mail server or open relay to "deceive or mislead
] recipients" about the origin of a commercial e-mail
] message. Also outlawed is registering for "5 or more"
] e-mail accounts or "2 or more domain names" with false
] information and using them to send commercial e-mail
] messages. Penalties include up to three years in prison
] for a first offense.

Most of the provisions of the new anti-spam law are reasonable in that they target the sort of behavior that most of us have a problem with. It remains to be seen if the government will effectively enforce this legislation. I honestly doubt it as I remain fairly convinced that abuse of open relays is already illegal, but I've heard it argued that prosecutions under existing law have failed. We'll see...

Of note, however, is a certain section of the law which does not just target bulk commercial email, but targets ALL anonymous commercial email including transactional messages.

What that means is that it is basically illegal to run an ecash based service behind anonymous remailers because you are not allowed to send transactional messages to your customers through the remailer network.

In short, the U.S. Congress just banned nearly all effective forms of data haven under the auspices of protecting you from spam.

This, I must say, I oppose.


 
RE: House passes antispam bill - Bans all anonymous business on the internet
by Thrynn at 1:23 pm EST, Nov 23, 2003

Decius wrote:
] Most of the provisions of the new anti-spam law are reasonable
] in that they target the sort of behavior that most of us have
] a problem with.
--snip--

Well, I feared this would get passed one day. The House and Senate have both passed similiar bills, so once they work out the minor differences, and it gets a signature, we should have a shiny new law...and that sucks. Here's why:

I am for a smaller government, with a greater emphasis on self-governance and control. Do we need to run to Whitehouse whining about every little problem in hopes that we can gain victory or resolution via legislation and lawsuits? I think not. This problem should be solved with technology.

What we have done is waste tax payer dollars (again) on a problem that will be difficult if not impossible to enforce. So is this the drug war redeux? Will we send covert militia units to foreign lands to target and eliminate the spam cartels who send millions and millions of messages from their compounds in the jungle? Will we "tolerate" certain groups because they give us access to terrorists' computer networks? Will this eventually lead to US isp's being court ordered to ban access to/from certain IP blocks?

The government should be focused on social programs that wouldn't be handled by volunteers and the big fish like national defense. We the people should be responsible and handle our ouwn problems like what OS to use and how to eliminate certain network traffic *we* deem unacceptable.


  
RE: House passes antispam bill - Bans all anonymous business on the internet
by k at 11:14 am EST, Nov 24, 2003

Thrynn wrote:
] I am for a smaller government, with a greater emphasis on
] self-governance and control. Do we need to run to Whitehouse
] whining about every little problem in hopes that we can gain
] victory or resolution via legislation and lawsuits? I think
] not. This problem should be solved with technology.

now that's a much better argument than the others i've heard. at the very least it's a pretty worthless law, but, it's an easy campaign talking point, so it's a good deal for them. politics politics politics.


 
 
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