Maryland House Deletes E-Mail 'Spam'
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The Maryland House of Delegates voted unanimously Wednesday to curtail spam by criminalizing the sending of mass unsolicited e-mail (search).
"This legislation is trying to move in the right direction," said Delegate Anthony J. O'Donnell, R-Calvert. "Some of these (spam) messages deal with sexual conduct and they are inappropriate and offensive."
The legislation penalizes senders of spam based on a sliding scale of the number of mailings sent, which would determine whether charges should be misdemeanors or felonies.
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The Senate last week passed a version of the spam bill, SB 604, which was considered by the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
The federal government has cracked down on unsolicited, mass e-mail with the CAN-SPAM Act (search) of 2003. It requires commercial e-mail to be labeled and prohibits using deceptive subject lines.
It also authorizes the Federal Trade Committee to establish a "do-not-e-mail" registry (search).
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Delegate Neil Quinter, D-Howard, House bill sponsor, said spam costs businesses approximately $10 billion dollars a year. He said he hopes to duplicate the success of Virginia's spam law, which is similar.
"The problem of spamming is growing exponentially," he said.
The Senate bill sponsor, Rob Garagiola, D-Montgomery, said he expected Wednesday's hearing would lead to combined bill that both chambers could support.
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"We're going to make the bills conform," said Garagiola.
The bill has the support of Time Warner/AOL, Earthlink (search) and Microsoft (search), according to the legislators.
Quinter has said his bill would provide the Attorney General with more specific tools to prosecute spammers in civil court.
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Spam is more than just an annoyance, said Delegate Don Dwyer Jr., R-Anne Arundel. Dwyer, and some other lawmakers, had his computer overtaken by spam to the point where it damaged computer files and sent out pornographic messages with his e-mail address.
These kinds of egregious violations he said are calling out for legislation.
"I don't have a problem receiving junk mail," said Dwyer. "But when somebody takes control of my files, that ought to be a criminal act. I know that it has affected many of those who run for elected office."
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Capital News Service contributed to this report.