A US congressional subcommittee Wednesday approved legislation that would prohibit sending unsolicited e-mail unless it is marked as an unsolicited commercial advertisement. The Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee approved the legislative proposal by a unanimous voice vote. The bill now will move on to the full Energy and Commerce Committee. This is the continuation of a battle that started in 1998.
Critics charge that spam e-mail clogs networks and is a nuisance for many users.
The information contained in spam e-mail is never requested and thus should not be delivered, he said. The bill known as The Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001 gives users the right to remove their names from spam lists. Companies that send spam would be required to provide a valid return e-mail address where users could write to be removed from the spam list, the bill states. Consumers should have the power to stop receiving junk e-mail, said U.S. Representative Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico who introduced the bill with Green, in a statement. There is some concern from direct marketing companies about the bill.