Had to do a legal opinion for the corporation that I was general counsel for. Here is a quick snippet:
The clearest layman definition of "spam" would be unsolicited bulk e-mail. Despite what the companies that send spam say, there is currently no federal law that protects consumers from spam. Many spammers site to Senate Bill 1618 Title III and put the following language at the end of their e-mail: "Under Bill s.1618 Title III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this mail cannot be considered Spam as long as we include contact information and a remove link for removal from our mailing list. To be removed from our mailing list reply with "REMOVE" in the subject heading and your email address in the body. Include complete address and/or domain/ aliases to be removed. If you still get the emails, please call us at the numbers given above."
They claim that under this law, their e-mail is not spam. This bill is NOT law. It died at the end of the 105th Congress in 1998. They cite this language for two reasons: 1) to fool you into thinking that it is not spam and 2) because the e-mail may not be considered spam in some states if they include that warning. That being said, there are is proposed legislation in regard to spam currently before the Senate. In these Bills, spam is typically defined as follows: COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.??The term "commercial electronic mail" means any electronic mail message, the principal purpose of which is to promote, directly or indirectly, the sale or other distribution of goods or services to the recipient. COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL- The term `commercial electronic mail' means any electronic mail or similar message whose primary purpose is to initiate a commercial transaction, not including messages sent by persons to others with whom they have a prior business relationship.
Approximately a dozen and a half states have legislation dealing with spam. For instance, sending spam to a resident of Delaware is considered a violation of Delaware?s criminal code. The following is Delaware?s definition of spam: (17) "Commercial Electronic Mail" or "Commercial E-mail" means any electronic mail message that is sent to a receiving address or account for the purposes of advertising, promoting, marketing or otherwise attempting to solicit interest in any good service or enterprise. § 937. Un-requested or Unauthorized Electronic Mail or use of network or software to cause same. The following is their spam law: A person is guilty of the computer crime of un-requested or unauthorized electronic mail: (a) when that person, without authorization, intentionally or recklessly distributes any unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail (commercial E-mail) to any receiving address or account under the control of any authorized user of a computer system. This section shall not apply to electronic mail that is sent between human beings, or when the individual has requested said information. (d) For the purposes of this section, conduct occurring outside of the State shall be sufficient to constitute this offense if such conduct is within the terms of Section 204 of this title, or if the receiving address or account was under the control of any authorized user of a computer system who was located in Delaware at the time he or she received the electronic mail or communication and the defendant was aware of circumstances which rendered the presence of such authorized user in Delaware a reasonable possibility. California also has laws regarding spam. Their definition of spam is as follows: 17538.4. (a) No person or entity conducting business in this state shall facsimile (fax) or cause to be faxed, or electronically mail (e-mail) or cause to be e-mailed, documents consisting of unsolicited advertising material for the lease, sale, rental, gift offer, or other disposition of any realty, goods, services, or extension of credit unless: (2) In the case of e-mail, that person or entity establishes a toll-free telephone number or valid sender operated return e-mail address that the recipient of the unsolicited documents may call or e-mail to notify the sender not to e-mail any further unsolicited documents. As you will note in (2), CA adopted an exception to spam e-mail based on the proposed Senate Bill 1618.
