Needs: (its not necessary)
If you don't like spam, get off the list. Every spammer gives instructions on how to remove yourself from the list. They share lists. Just say no. If thats not enough, install router access rules to prevent spammers from sending mail to your site. Such rules are freely available, and easily installed. Just ask me if you want them.
Since the "internet" is by defintition "interstate", states have no juridiction to regulate the content of internet traffic, according the constitution. The right to regulate interstate commerce is given to the Congress of the United States, which has mostly delegated that authority to the Commerce Department.
Spammers routinely use "remove" messages to confirm that they have valid
addresses. This simply does not work.
They do?? Do you have evidence of this? This sounds pretty paranoid, not to mention that there are many better ways to check email addresses. I think you should really go meet some telemarketing, junk mail, and spamming people. They are not quite the evil-doers you are making out. I have no doubt that they are generally nice, legitimate business people trying to promote a product or service. And, well, for those who aren't, fraud is already a crime.
And you still have router rules. (Just like unlisted phone numbers, only better, because they are not unlisted.).
Years ago we addressed this problem of unwanted posters. It was called "moderation". Now, it seems you want a personal moderator or in lieu of that, supress everyone elses right to freedom of speech. I don't think we can do that. You can hire a personal moderator at your own expense. Bill Gates has a whole staff to handle his email, and an ultrasecret address to get the really private mail that he doesn't trust his moderators to handle (which isn't much).
Please help to stop this plague of spam before it makes the Internet entirely useless.
Will spam make the internet useless? Of course not. Spammers pay for their connections, just like everyone else. More spam means bigger connections to spammers, which means more money to the backbone providers to build bigger networks. This is just as naive as thinking the internet gives free long distance. Of course not. Those long distance lines are paid for at market rates for leased lines. The long distance is being paid for out of your service fees or the ISP will go broke. Note that the phone company in both cases gets long term, predictable, fully sold service the phone line.
I get a handful of spam messages per week. I don't think it has, or ever will make a difference in my internet service.
Falsehoods from Rep. Smiths bill:
Furthermore, junk e-mailers occupy time and space on an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) servers and forces the ISP to make technical improvements. The costs of these improvements are passed on to the consumer -- you and me. In effect, the consumer is paying to have their privacy breached and invaded.
Nothing could be further from the truth. ISP sell their services. They sell them to me, to you and to spammers. When I buy a T1, I pay for a T1. When a spammer buys a T1, they pay for a T1. It doesn't matter whether they use it for email or ftp. They get the bandwidth they pay for. I get mine. I don't subsidize their connection in any way. This is practically a fraud, or a really grossly stupid thing to say.
I sell internet services such as 56K, ISDN, and T1 links. I buy services from an upstream provider. Thats how it works. It doesn't matter what its used for, the cost is the same.
And no one remains unaffected by these intrusions. The business owner or ISP with their own server often unwittingly distributes unsolicited advertisements by acting as an exploder site or mail relay site. Not only is this trespassing on another person's "property," but it is an outright theft of another person's resources.
Still so false that this is practically a fraud on the public. ISP's charge to be exploder and mail relay sites. They don't add email lists or accounts to their computers "unwittingly" There is no tresspassing or theft in the normal operations of legitimate spamming businesses. The ISP can charge a flat rate, a fee per message, or just about any other fee structure they can think of. If you don't like the fee structure go to another ISP.
Even more disturbing is the fact that a large portion of the unsolicited junk e-mail comes in the form of fraudulent get rich quick schemes, unproven medical remedies, and other unsavory solicitations.
Fraud is still fraud, whether by planes, trains or automobiles. If its fraudulent, or not FDA approved, or otherwise illegal, we have existing remedies, which already apply. Prostitution doesn't suddenly becom legal because its done over the net instead of on a streetcorner.