Principles to be Considered in the Regulation of Spam
Spam is a threat to the long-term viability of the permission-based commercial email industry. The Council supports efforts by the information technology industry to develop technology-based solutions to the problems created by spam.
The Council believes that regulation of spam should be addressed at the federal level. But because Congress has not enacted legislation, the issue has moved to the state level.
The Council has adopted the following principles to serve as a benchmark against which legislation regulating spam should be measured:
- Prohibit the use of an Internet address or domain name of a third party without the party’s consent.
- Prohibit email containing false or misleading addresses and subjects, or false or missing routing information.
- Prohibit the sale or distribution of software that is designed to falsify electronic mail transmissions or other routing information.
- Require messages to contain a provision allowing the recipient to opt-out of receiving further messages.
- Require messages containing material of a sexual, sexually explicit or otherwise adult-oriented nature to use “ADLT” as the first characters in the subject line.
- Permit an affirmative defense in an action brought pursuant to the Commonwealth’s consumer protection statute if the defendant has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to prevent violations of these principles.
