[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S6142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  By Mr. NELSON of Florida:
  S. 1052. A bill to ensure that recipients of unsolicited bulk 
commercial electronic mail can identify the sender of such electronic 
mail, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, unwanted e-mail has become a 
problem of such gargantuan proportions that today's consumers find it 
difficult to engage in the normal commerce of e-mail because their e-
mail screen is so cluttered with so many unwanted messages.
  Commercially, clearly there is a desirable reason to have commercial 
messages, but a consumer ought to be able to opt out if that consumer 
does not want to continue to get those commercial messages. A consumer, 
particularly, should not have to endure the affront of messages that 
are clearly inappropriate, including pornographic messages.
  It is unbelievable. Yesterday, I was in my Tampa office, and in just 
one day, in the Tampa office, a U.S. Senate office, we had an e-mail 
sheet filled with unwanted messages, including pornographic messages. 
You can imagine if it is happening to a U.S. Senator's e-mail account 
what is happening across the land.
  So today I am introducing legislation that will give the consumer the 
opportunity to opt out, that will create penalties, both in jail time 
and fines, for deceptive and untruthful messages, as well as messages 
that do not have a return address where somebody is masking their 
identity.
  And, Mr. President, we are going to put some teeth in this 
legislation because we are going to make the infraction of this 
particular onerous activity of unwanted e-mail an element of the 
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the RICO Act, which 
will give prosecutors the tools to go after the criminal enterprise and 
take the assets of that criminal enterprise that has become such a 
plague upon the consumers of this Nation who want and desire and, in 
fact, use a new kind of communication, e-mail.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1052

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Ban on Deceptive Unsolicited 
     Bulk Electronic Mail Act of 2003''.

     SEC. 2. DECEPTIVE UNSOLICITED ELECTRONIC MAIL.

       (a) Violations.--It shall be unlawful for any person to 
     knowingly and intentionally use a computer or computer 
     network to--
       (1) falsify or forge electronic mail transmission 
     information or other source, destination, routing, or subject 
     heading information in any manner in connection with the 
     transmission of unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail 
     through, or into, the computer network of an electronic mail 
     service provider or its subscribers;
       (2) transmit an electronic mail message to a recipient who 
     requests not to receive unsolicited bulk commercial 
     electronic mail; or
       (3) collect electronic mail addresses from public and 
     private spaces for the purpose of transmitting unsolicited 
     bulk commercial electronic mail.
       (b) Penalty.--Any violation of subsection (a) shall be--
       (1) considered a predicate offense for the purposes of 
     applying the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization 
     Act (RICO) (18 U.S.C. 1961 et seq.);
       (2) constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice in 
     violation of section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 
     (15 U.S.C. 45(a)); and
       (3) punishable by--
       (A) a civil penalty; and
       (B) a fine in accordance with title 18, United States Code, 
     or imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both.
       (c) Opportunity to Option Out of Receiving Unsolicited 
     Mail.--Any person sending unsolicited bulk commercial 
     electronic mail shall provide recipients of such electronic 
     mail a clear and conspicuous opportunity to request not to 
     receive future unsolicited electronic mail.
       (d) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) Electronic mail message.--The term ``electronic mail 
     message'' means a message sent to an electronic mail address.
       (2) Electronic mail address.--The term ``electronic mail 
     address'' means a destination, commonly expressed as a string 
     of characters, consisting of a unique user name or mailbox 
     (commonly referred to as the ``local part'') and a reference 
     to an Internet domain (commonly referred to as the ``domain 
     part'') to which an electronic mail message can be sent or 
     delivered.

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