aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, October 10, 2005

Federal antispam laws

CNet’s Declan McCullagh argues the feds should do nothing about spam; leave it to the states. His argument is persuasive:

Five spyware-related bills exist in Congress, namely S.1004, H.R.744, H.R.29, S.687, and S.1608.

Three of those--including Rep. Mary Bono’s H.R.29, already approved by the House of Representatives--would explicitly override state laws, even if the state laws are more consumer-friendly than the federal law.

Many are. Last year, Utah enacted an anti-spyware law that was so strict that WhenU sued to block it even before the measure took effect. WhenU is one of those ethically challenged companies that tread the line between adware and spyware--its software is surreptitiously installed when unsuspecting Windows users download file-sharing programs like BearShare. Some 87 percent of WhenU “customers” are unaware where that constant stream of pop-up ads comes from from.

No wonder WhenU CEO Avi Naider says that his company “supports anti-spyware legislation at the federal level.” It would eliminate the possibility of state legislators taking a harder line.