WASHINGTON-Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), a long-time champion in the fight against the unsolicited commercial e-mail that increasingly devours Internet capacity and threatens wireless data in its infancy, this week is expected to introduce anti-spam legislation that competes with a similar bill backed by chairmen of the House commerce and judiciary committees.
“She just feels current drafts create too large of a loophole,” said a Wilson spokesman, referring to anti-spam legislation introduced May 22 by Rep. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and co-sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).
Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), who worked with Wilson on previous anti-spam initiatives, again plans to join the New Mexico lawmaker on the new bill. The House was poised to vote on a Wilson anti-spam bill in the 107th Congress, but the legislation was sidetracked by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A lot has changed since then in terms of homeland security and cyberspace spam. In 2001, according to the House Commerce Committee, spam represented 8 percent of all e-mail. Today, unwanted solicitations on the Internet comprise 50 percent of e-mail.
Like other anti-spam bills, the Wilson legislation will be broad-based in its reach. “Our reading is it will include wireless,” said Wilson’s spokesman. The spokesman said Wilson’s staff is working with the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association on the bill’s language and its impact on the wireless industry.
Among the handful of anti-spam bills in Congress, only one specifically targets mobile-phone spam. The measure, penned by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), has not moved in recent years.
The Wilson bill, like the Burr-Tauzin-Sensenbrenner measure, would require clear identification that the electronic message is an advertisement; give consumers an opportunity to opt out of future e-mails from the sender; provide uniform national guidelines and impose stiff criminal penalties for violations.
Wilson’s spokesman said the Burr-Tauzin-Sensenbrenner bill falls short on enforcement because there is nothing to force or persuade senders of spam to honor the requests of recipients who wish to opt out. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking minority member of the House Commerce Committee, also has withheld support of the Burr- Tauzin-Sensenbrenner bill because of enforcement concerns.
The different sides bring a lot to the table. The Burr-Tauzin-Sensenbrenner bill, owing to support from two major committee chairmen, gives the measure instant political horsepower. Wilson, for her part, has considerable experience and credibility on the spam issue. Dingell’s backing would give the Burr-Tauzin-Sensenbrenner bill a handsome bipartisan look.
The posturing has all the looks of a compromise in the making.
Spam is an emerging challenge for the wireless industry, fraught with novel legal, technical and economic questions as wireless devices become the destination for content and marketing pitches.
“We’ve been in touch with congressional staff working on all of the relevant spam bills,” said Travis Larson, a CTIA spokesman. “It’s important to remember that wireless has a history of protecting our customers from the scourge of spam. We don’t want our customers inundated with unwanted messages. In the U.S., the SMS is designed to limit unwanted messages. For example, we limit the number of addresses any one text message can be sent to, and the mail is largely restricted to handset to handset traffic. While most of the bills currently examining spam cover wireless, some present problems when the rules are applied to SMS. For example, long disclosure requirements would eat up our small screens.”
It is unclear how lawmakers will address the disclosure dilemma for handsets in pending bills.
