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New Spam Law Will Not Stop the Biggest Offenders, Says E-mail Expert

BRISTOL, Pa., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ — With President Bush expected to sign
the CAN-SPAM Act into law today, one e-mail marketing authority warns
consumers that the flood of annoying and offensive messages will continue to
fill their inbox.

"Unfortunately, this law will have no effect on the worst spammers," says
Brian Wm. Niles, CEO of e-mail marketing company TargetX. "Estimates are that
90 percent of all spam comes from about 200 groups around the world. They
operate outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

"Even more important, they are able to hide their identity," he added.
"They make it impossible for authorities to trace them, so laws that threaten
penalties are absolutely meaningless."

The law authorizes fines of up to $250 a message for mass e-mailers who
disguise their identities. "The obvious Catch-22," said Niles, "is that by
hiding themselves, and thus breaking the law, spammers also make it impossible
for authorities to trace, identify and prosecute them."

In addition to requiring marketers to identify themselves by providing a
true return e-mail address, the bill also mandates a reliable mechanism for
recipients to opt-out of any future mailings. And it prohibits misleading
subject lines.

"But legitimate marketers are already meeting these requirements because
it’s potentially damaging to their reputation if they don’t," Niles said.
The solution to the problem of spam will not come from laws, do-not-call
registries or spam filters, said Niles, but from a fundamental change in the
Internet’s e-mail transmission technology.

"The basis of e-mail transmission is a set of rules known as SMTP," he
explained. "It was developed over 20 years ago for a totally different type
of Internet, one that was trusting and built on a belief that users would
respect the privacy of others. Now that concepts of trust and privacy are
gone, we need a change in the way e-mail flows through the pipelines.
"It can be done, but it will require a global consensus, which only makes
sense considering spam is now a global problem."

TargetX was founded in 1998 when it introduced an e-mail broadcasting tool
for colleges and universities. Over the past five years, the company has
broadened its reach and refined its web-based email system, adding new and
more sophisticated capabilities and services.

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