Washington, June 20: US lawmakers has taken aim at "spam" messages as two separate bills worked their way through the US Senate, including one that would make sending some unsolicited e-mails a crime.
Utah senator Orrin Hatch co-sponsored one bill introduced yesterday, the Criminal Spam Act of 2003, which targets people who hijack computer systems or use other fraudulent means to send unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Utah senator Orrin Hatch co-sponsored one bill introduced yesterday, the Criminal Spam Act of 2003, which targets people who hijack computer systems or use other fraudulent means to send unsolicited commercial e-mail.
"Current federal law does not adequately address the tactics sophisticated spammers use to conceal their identities, evade internet service provider filters, and exploit the internet by promoting pornographic web sites, illegally pirated software, questionable health products, pyramid schemes and other 'get rich quick' scams," said Hatch, a Republican from Utah, who co-sponsored the legislation with Vermont democrat Patrick Leahy.
"Ridding America's inboxes of deceptively delivered spam will significantly advance our fight to clear electronic channels for legitimate communications," Leahy said.



Their bill would make it a crime to hijack the identities of other computer uses to send bulk commercial e-mail or to conceal key information about the e-mail's source.



Violators could face up to five years in prison.



A separate anti-spam bill, authored by democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican senator Conrad Burns of Montana, was unanimously approved yesterday by the commerce committee.


Bureau Report