Washington, June 20: A US Senate committee passed a toughened measure to crack down on "spam" e-mail on Thursday and promised that the bill would be strengthened further by the time it comes up for a full vote. The Senate Commerce Committee also voted to give antifraud enforcers greater authority to fight the unsolicited commercial pitches that now account for up to half of all e-mail traffic.
Both measures passed by voice vote with little debate, reflecting the consensus on Capitol Hill that new laws are needed to stop the electronic deluge of pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and quack miracle cures that frustrates Internet users and costs service providers billions of dollars in wasted bandwidth.
"Something has got to be done to protect American consumers and businesses from spam, and this is a good start," said Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the committee.
The anti-spam bill passed by the committee would require Internet marketers to provide legitimate return addresses on their messages, describe their products honestly and honour consumer requests to be taken off their lists. Bureau Report