CALI SPAM BAN

NYT reports that California has banned spam:

Gov. Gray Davis of California signed a bill today that outlaws sending most commercial e-mail to or from the state that the recipient did not explicitly request. That is a far more wide-reaching law than any of the 35 other state laws meant to regulate spam or any of the proposed bills in Congress.

“We are saying that unsolicited e-mail cannot be sent and there are no loopholes,'” said Kevin Murray, the Democratic state senator from Los Angeles who sponsored the bill.

The law would fine spammers $1,000 for each unsolicited message sent up to $1 million for each campaign.

As the nation’s most populous state and the home to many large Internet companies, the California bill could well have a significant effect on spam. The bill puts the burden on the sender to determine if the recipient resides in California.

Very bold. I can’t see how this could possibly work from a technical standpoint, however.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. BigFire says:

    James. It’s the thought that count. Consider this is Joseph Graham Davis Jr., the best politician money can buy, it means very little.

  2. How is “social spam” affected? If I send a friend an invitation to an event–or for that matter, a lame joke, or a ill-thought-out political observation–is this now illegal?

    Do they specify “stranger spam”? How about “date spam”?

    Where does it end?