I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 95
To protect individuals, families, and Internet service providers from unsolicited
and unwanted electronic mail.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 3, 2001
Mr. GREEN of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To protect individuals, families, and Internet service
providers from unsolicited and unwanted electronic mail.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Unsolicited Commer-
cial Electronic Mail Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND POLICY.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) There is a right of free speech on the Inter-
net.
(2) The Internet has increasingly become a crit-
ical mode of global communication and now presents
unprecedented opportunities for the development and
growth of global commerce and an integrated world-
wide economy. In order for global commerce on the
Internet to reach its full potential, individuals and
entities using the Internet and other online services
should be prevented from engaging in activities that
prevent other users and Internet service providers
from having a reasonably predictable, efficient, and
economical online experience.
(3) Unsolicited commercial electronic mail can
be an important mechanism through which busi-
nesses advertise and attract customers in the online
environment.
(4) The receipt of unsolicited commercial elec-
tronic mail may result in costs to recipients who
cannot refuse to accept such mail and who incur
costs for the storage of such mail, or for the time
spent accessing, reviewing, and discarding such mail,
or for both.
(5) Unsolicited commercial electronic mail may
impose significant monetary costs on Internet access
services, businesses, and educational and nonprofit
institutions that carry and receive such mail, as
there is a finite volume of mail that such providers,
businesses, and institutions can handle without fur-
ther investment. The sending of such mail is increas-
ingly and negatively affecting the quality of service
provided to customers of Internet access service, and
shifting costs from the sender of the advertisement
to the Internet access service.
(6) While some senders of unsolicited commer-
cial electronic mail messages provide simple and reli-
able ways for recipients to reject (or ‘‘opt-out’’ of)
receipt of unsolicited commercial electronic mail
from such senders in the future, other senders pro-
vide no such ‘‘opt-out’’ mechanism, or refuse to
honor the requests of recipients not to receive elec-
tronic mail from such senders in the future, or both.
(7) An increasing number of senders of unsolic-
ited commercial electronic mail purposefully disguise
the source of such mail so as to prevent recipients
from responding to such mail quickly and easily.
(8) Many senders of unsolicited commercial
electronic mail collect or harvest electronic mail ad-
dresses of potential recipients without the knowledge
of those recipients and in violation of the rules or
terms of service of the database from which such ad-
dresses are collected.
(9) Because recipients of unsolicited commercial
electronic mail are unable to avoid the receipt of
such mail through reasonable means, such mail may
invade the privacy of recipients.
(10) In legislating against certain abuses on the
Internet, Congress should be very careful to avoid
infringing in any way upon constitutionally protected
rights, including the rights of assembly, free speech,
and privacy.
(b) CONGRESSIONAL DETERMINATION
OF PUBLIC
POLICY.—On the basis of the findings in subsection (a),
the Congress determines that—
(1) there is substantial government interest in
regulation of unsolicited commercial electronic mail;
(2) Internet service providers should not be
compelled to bear the costs of unsolicited commercial
electronic mail without compensation from the send-
er; and
(3) recipients of unsolicited commercial elec-
tronic mail have a right to decline to receive or have
their children receive unsolicited commercial elec-
tronic mail.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) CHILDREN.—The term ‘‘children’’ includes
natural children, stepchildren, adopted children, and
children who are wards of or in custody of the par-
ent, who have not attained the age of 18 and who
reside with the parent or are under his or her care,
custody, or supervision.
(2) COMMERCIAL
ELECTRONIC
MAIL
MES-
SAGE.—The term ‘‘commercial electronic mail mes-
sage’’ means any electronic mail message that pri-
marily advertises or promotes the commercial avail-
ability of a product or service for profit or invites
the recipient to view content on an Internet web site
that is operated for a commercial purpose. An elec-
tronic mail message shall not be considered to be a
commercial electronic mail message solely because
such message includes a reference to a commercial
entity that serves to identify the initiator.
(3) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’
means the Federal Trade Commission.
(4) DOMAIN NAME.—The term ‘‘domain name’’
means any alphanumeric designation which is reg-
istered with or assigned by any domain name reg-
istrar, domain name registry, or other domain name
registration authority as part of an electronic ad-
dress on the Internet.
(5) ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘electronic
mail address’’ means a destination (commonly
expressed as a string of characters) to which
electronic mail can be sent or delivered.
(B) INCLUSION.—In the case of the Inter-
net, the term ‘‘electronic mail address’’ may in-
clude an electronic mail address consisting of a
user name or mailbox (commonly referred to as
the ‘‘local part’’) and a reference to an Internet
domain (commonly referred to as the ‘‘domain
part’’).
(6) INTERNET.—The term ‘‘Internet’’ has the
meaning given that term in section 231(e)(3) of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231(e)(3)).
(7) INTERNET
ACCESS
SERVICE.—The term
‘‘Internet access service’’ has the meaning given that
term in section 231(e)(4) of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231(e)(4)).
(8) INITIATE.—The term ‘‘initiate’’, when used
with respect to a commercial electronic mail mes-
sage, means to originate such message or to procure
the transmission of such message.
(9) INITIATOR.—The term ‘‘initiator’’, when
used with respect to a commercial electronic mail
message, means the person who initiates such mes-
sage. Such term does not include a provider of an
Internet access service whose role with respect to the
message is limited to handling, transmitting, re-
transmitting, or relaying the message.
(10) 
PRE-EXISTING
BUSINESS
RELATION-
SHIP.—The term ‘‘pre-existing business relation-
ship’’ means, when used with respect to the initiator
and recipient of a commercial electronic mail mes-
sage, that either of the following circumstances exist:
(A) PREVIOUS BUSINESS TRANSACTION.—
(i) Within the 5-year period ending
upon receipt of such message, there has
been a business transaction between the
initiator and the recipient (including a
transaction involving the provision, free of
charge, of information requested by the re-
cipient, of goods, or of services); and
(ii) the recipient was, at the time of
such transaction or thereafter, provided a
clear and conspicuous notice of an oppor-
tunity not to receive further messages from
the initiator and has not exercised such op-
portunity.
(B) OPT IN.—The recipient has given the
initiator permission to initiate commercial elec-
tronic mail messages to the electronic mail ad-
dress of the recipient and has not subsequently
revoked such permission.
(11) RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘recipient’’, when
used with respect to a commercial electronic mail
message, means the addressee of such message.
(12) UNSOLICITED
COMMERCIAL
ELECTRONIC
MAIL MESSAGE.—The term ‘‘unsolicited commercial
electronic mail message’’ means any commercial
electronic mail message that is sent by the initiator
to a recipient with whom the initiator does not have
a pre-existing business relationship.
SEC. 4. CRIMINAL PENALTY FOR UNSOLICITED COMMER-
CIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL CONTAINING FRAUD-
ULENT ROUTING INFORMATION.
Section 1030 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(5)—
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’
at the end;
(B) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ‘‘or’’
after the semicolon at the end; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
‘‘(D) intentionally initiates the transmission of
any unsolicited commercial electronic mail message
to a protected computer in the United States with
knowledge that any domain name, header informa-
tion, date or time stamp, originating electronic mail
address, or other information identifying the
initiator or the routing of such message, that is con-
tained in or accompanies such message, is false or
inaccurate;’’;
(2) in subsection (c)(2)(A)—
(A) by inserting ‘‘(i)’’ after ‘‘in the case
of’’; and
(B) by inserting before ‘‘; and’’ the fol-
lowing: ‘‘, or (ii) an offense under subsection
(a)(5)(D) of this section’’; and
(3) in subsection (e)—
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (8);
(B) by striking the period at the end of
paragraph (9) and inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
‘‘(10) the terms ‘initiate’, ‘initiator’, ‘unsolicited
commercial electronic mail message’, and ‘domain
name’ have the meanings given such terms in section
3 of the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act
of 2001.’’.
SEC. 5. OTHER PROTECTIONS AGAINST UNSOLICITED COM-
MERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.
(a) REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSMISSION OF MES-
SAGES.—
(1) INCLUSION OF RETURN ADDRESS IN COM-
MERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.—It shall be unlawful
for any person to initiate the transmission of a com-
mercial electronic mail message to any person within
the United States unless such message contains a
valid electronic mail address, conspicuously dis-
played, to which a recipient may send a reply to the
initiator to indicate a desire not to receive any fur-
ther messages.
(2) PROHIBITION OF TRANSMISSION OF UNSO-
LICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL AFTER OB-
JECTION.—If a recipient makes a request to a per-
son to be removed from all distribution lists under
the control of such person, it shall be unlawful for
such person to initiate the transmission of an unso-
licited commercial electronic mail message to such