06-17-2000

COMMERCE: Committees Cook Spam, Create Privacy Panel

The House Commerce Committee gave quick approval on June 14 to a
bipartisan bill that would combat junk e-mail, or "spam." The
Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act (H.R. 3113), which was approved by voice
vote, would enable individuals to "opt out" of receiving junk
e-mail. Spammers who continue to bombard a person with junk e-mail after
being asked to stop could be sued.


The legislation would allow Internet service providers to establish their
own junk e-mail policies and to sue spammers in state or federal court for
$500 in actual damages per message-up to a total of $50,000-if they
violate those rules. A court could increase the award to $150,000 for
repeated violations.


Meanwhile, a House Government Reform panel approved bipartisan legislation
on June 14 that would create a 17-member commission to study privacy
issues, including online privacy, identity theft, and the protection of
medical or financial records. The Government Management, Information, and
Technology Subcommittee approved the bill (H.R. 4049) by voice
vote.


The bill would authorize $5 million for the bipartisan commission to study
privacy-protection issues for 18 months. The commission would then make
recommendations to Congress regarding what, if any, new privacy laws are
needed, and whether any current laws or regulations need to be
modified.


Several privacy advocates, consumer groups, and civil rights organizations
oppose the bill. They argue that an 18-month study would only delay the
enactment of substantive privacy protections, which they believe are
needed immediately.


"Our privacy can't tolerate such delays," said Laura Murphy and
Gregory Nojeim, the ACLU's Washington office director and a legislative
counsel, in a letter to subcommittee Chairman Steve Horn, R-Calif.
"In the digital world, gross invasions of privacy are only a point
and a click away." They noted that since the proposed commission
would not make its recommendations until late in the 107th Congress, its
work would not produce any new laws until 2003, at the earliest.


Several other organizations, including the Electronic Privacy Information
Center and Consumer Action, told Horn in a letter last month that privacy
has already been "studied to death."


Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the full Government Reform committee's
ranking Democrat, said he was "deeply disappointed" that
"the Republican leadership would rather study privacy" than take
steps to protect it. "Unless we have some kind of forced action, I
fear that we will never get any privacy legislation," Waxman
said.


Molly M. Peterson

National Journal