June 16, 2004

Feds Decline to Create 'Do - Not -
Spam' List

By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:27 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration said it will not create a
national do-not-spam registry to discourage unwanted e-mail, fearing it could
backfire and become a target list for new victims.

The Federal Trade Commission told Congress on Tuesday that senders of
unwanted sales pitches might mine such a registry for names. Its chairman,
Timothy Muris, quipped that consumers ``will be spammed if we do a registry and
spammed if we do not.''

The commission was obligated by lawmakers to consider the proposal under the
``can spam'' legislation that Bush signed in December, an idea patterned after
the FTC's enormously successful do-not-call registry to limit telemarketing
calls.

But the FTC concluded that on the Internet, unlike within the highly
regulated U.S. telephone network, regulators would be ``largely powerless to
identify those responsible for misusing the registry.''

Muris said that, given the risks of consumers adding their names to a
do-not-spam registry, ``I wouldn't put my e-mail address on such a list.''

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the leading supporter in Congress for a
no-spam registry, said the FTC's decision was disappointing.

``The registry is not the perfect solution but it is the best solution we
have,'' Schumer said.

Regulators instead proposed broad adoption of new authentication technology
that will make it more difficult to disguise the origin of unwanted e-mails.
Several proposals from leading technology companies, including Microsoft
Corp., are under consideration by industry.

``A national do-not-e-mail registry, without a system in place to
authenticate the origin of e-mail messages, would fail to reduce the burden of
spam and may even increase the amount of spam received by consumers,'' the
commission said.

If new authentication plans fail to emerge, the FTC will convene a federal
advisory committee to determine whether the government could require Internet
providers to adopt one.

``Without effective authentication of e-mail, any registry is doomed to
fail,'' the commission said.

The government said it was particularly worried about issues of security and
privacy with respect to children whose addresses might be added to such a
registry.

``A registry that identified accounts used by children, for example, could
assist legitimate marketers to avoid sending inappropriate messages to
children,'' the commission said. ``At the same time, however, the Internet's
most dangerous users, including pedophiles, also could use this information to
target children.''

Also Tuesday, key House members on telecommunications issues moved to
overturn regulations set to take effect next year aimed at preventing homes and
offices from receiving junk faxes.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
telecommunications subcommittee, said he planned to introduce a bill Wednesday
to rescind Federal Communications Commission regulations that requires a
recipient to receive a commercial fax only if they have given prior consent.

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