WASHINGTON-President George W. Bush Tuesday signed the CAN-SPAM Act, which includes a move toward prohibiting wireless spam.
The bill includes language seeking to ban transmissions of unsolicited commercial e-mail to mobile phones without prior consent of subscribers.
The amendment sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, advocates an opt-in approach to mobile spam, but still gives the Federal Communications Commission the discretion of setting an opt-out rule. In contrast, wireline Internet consumers would be restricted to having to opt out of unwanted electronic advertising.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act is modeled closely after the new Do-Not-Call registry in telemarketing legislation. As such, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general have the authority to enforce new anti-spam guidelines. But unlike the telemarketing legislation it includes a specific provision authorizing the FTC to create a Do-Not-Spam Registry. Congress was forced to pass special legislation earlier this year when a federal judge said the FTC did not have the authority to create the popular Do-Not-Call Registry. Congress is said to have then passed the special legislation faster than in any other non-war-related case.
