October 21, 1999 Web posted at: 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) by Margret Johnston

From...

(IDG) -- Another bill aimed at curbing spam has been proposed by two members of Congress who say consumers should have greater power to block unsolicited e-mail.

The bill would create a national "opt-out" list that could be used to decline any "commercial or pandering e-mail," according to the bill's sponsor, Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico. Wilson and Representative Gene Green, a Democrat from Texas, held a news conference in Washington to announce their plans to introduce the Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act of 1999.

The list could be used by parents to block e-mail sent to their children, especially deceptive messages from marketers that appear benign, Wilson said in a news release. The bill would give parents more power to protect their children from exposure to pornographic Web sites, Wilson said.

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The legislation would require commercial e-mail to have a valid return address so the sender could be identified and traced. The sender also would have to comply with requests to be removed from the distribution list, and if subsequent e-mails are sent despite the request, the recipient would have the right to sue the sender in local court or ask the Federal Communications Commission to investigate, Wilson's statement said.

The bill also provides relief for ISPs by allowing them to prohibit the transmission of unsolicited e-mail and by giving them more authority to defend their privacy policies and file damage claims in local courts or through an appeal to the FCC.

The legislation joins at least one other anti-spam bill in the House.

A bill introduced in June by Representative Gary Miller, a Republican from California, would restrict spam by allowing ISPs to control it as they see fit and sue spammers for damages of $50 per message or up to $25,000 per day, said John Cusey, a spokesman for Miller.

Miller's bill, which has been referred to the Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, does not include the national opt-out list provision contained in the Wilson-Green bill or the provision that gives individuals the right to sue alleged spammers, Cusey said.

There have been no hearings thus far on Miller's bill, but heightened concern about spam might result in a hearing on the proposed legislation early next year, Cusey said.

Margret Johnston is a Washington correspondent for the IDG News Service.