-Caveat Lector-
http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/12/23/news7.html
Calif. Initiative Against SPAM
By Sherman Fridman, Newsbytes.
December 23, 1999
Mike Johnson is tired of receiving unsolicited e-mail and
telemarketing calls, and he wants to do something about it.
He also has some clout behind him as the executive director
of the Los Angeles, Calif.-based consumer watchdog group,
Voter Revolt.
According to a report published Tuesday in the San Francisco
Examiner, Johnson was so angry about unsolicited sales
pitches - especially since his fianc�e recently received one
that he deemed to be pornographic - that Johnson wrote a
proposed ballot initiative to have the businesses that use
unsolicited e-mail and telephone marketing calls, "Stop
bugging us."
Johnson is getting ready to gather the signatures of
California registered voters on petitions in order to qualify
his initiative for an appearance on the November 2000 ballot.
In an interview with Newsbytes, Johnson said that his group
needed 420,000 signatures to qualify the initiative and that
he expects to begin the process of obtaining them around the
beginning of February.
Johnson acknowledges that part of his motivation in bringing
the initiative was the failure, last June, of the California
legislature to pass what he considered a modest proposal that
would have allowed Californians to enter their names on a
statewide don't-call-me list.
While it was reported that the don't-call-me legislation
failed in large part due to a procedural error, a highly
placed legislative staff member told Newsbytes that the bill
also required people to pay a fee to get on and off the list,
a provision that many legislators did not favor.
Johnson is quoted as saying that he believes a person's home
"ought to be a sanctuary," and that unsolicited calls and
e-mail should not be permitted to enter into it.
Under federal law, consumers can bar marketers from
contacting them by e-mail and telephone only through
contacting individual advertisers and demanding to be placed
on their do-not-contact lists.
In contrast, Johnson claims that the Voter Revolt initiative
would assume that consumers do not want unsolicited calls and
e-mails and would forbid marketers from contacting anyone who
had not affirmatively opted to receive such communications.
This is known as an opt-in plan, as opposed to the federal
system, which is known as opt-out.
Currently, California does have legislation on the books
which bans junk e-mail. The legislation, drafted by then
Assemblywoman, now State Senator, Debra Bowen
(D-Torrance/Marina del Ray) and signed into law in 1998, was
specifically aimed at slowing the flood of unsolicited junk
e-mail known as "spam."
Senator Bowen's office told Newsbytes that the bill signed
into law by former governor Pete Wilson required people
sending unsolicited advertising e-mail to provide recipients
with a toll-free phone number or a valid e-mail address so
the recipient can ask to stop receiving junk e-mail.
The California law also requires all spam to carry an "ADV"
label in the subject line, or "ADV:ADLT" for adult-oriented
material.
However, as a senior California legislative staff member told
Newsbytes, the problem with consumers receiving protection
under the bill is that the legislation only applies to e-mail
sent from within the State of California, to Californians,
and some county District Attorneys may be reluctant to
enforce the law due to a heavy case load of more serious
offenses.
A major difference between the Bowen law and the initiative
being proposed by Johnson is that Johnson's proposal shifts
the burden of action to the sender, away from the consumer.
However, Newsbytes was informed that there is legislative
concern that the Voter Revolt initiative, if it were to
become law, would be found to be unconstitutional.
Newsbytes asked Johnson about the question of
constitutionality. Johnson said that he had consulted with a
couple of law professors who expressed more concern over the
prohibition against unsolicited telephone calls than the
provisions directed against unsolicited e-mail.
Johnson drew an analogy to the federal law against sending
unsolicited faxes, which has been found to be
constitutionally proper on the basis that no one should have
the right to impose a financial cost on another person, and
receiving a fax imposes a cost, i.e. the fax paper.
The reason there is a concern about prohibiting telemarketing
calls is that such calls, while annoying, are essentially
free to the recipient. To counter any objection from
telemarketers, Johnson told Newsbytes that the Voter Revolt
initiative has a provision whereby persons who wish to
receive unsolicited advertising calls can register that wish
with the Public utilities Commission. This way, Johnson
feels, telemarketers can have a better, more receptive
audience, and they should not complain.
The address of the Voter Revolt Website, which is not yet
operative, is http://www.voterrevolt.org .
Reported by Newsbytes.com
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