On Tuesday President Bush signed the CAN SPAM bill, passed by Congress last month, which issues large fines and even jail time to email marketers who use tricky and misleading methods to con email recipients into purchasing products, viewing pornography, or being scammed by Internet con artists.

The bill, dubbed CAN SPAM, will not outlaw all commercial e-mail. Businesses could send messages to anyone with an e-mail address as long as they identified themselves clearly and honored consumer requests to leave them alone.

CAN SPAM would ban a multitude of spammer tactics, such as using false return addresses. Adult themed “porno” e-mail would have to be labeled, and commercial “text messages” to cell phones would be prohibited unless users expressly permitted them.

The anti-spam bill also would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to set up a “Do Not Spam” registry of Internet users who wish to receive no unsolicited e-mail at all, similar to the agency’s popular “Do Not Call” tele-marketing list.

The White House listed details on the CAN SPAM Act, which stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, which hope to answer most questions about the bill;

* The bill prohibits sexually explicit material that is in the body in the message. The bill also requires that any sexually explicit spam have a label identifying it in the subject line so that consumers can filter out these messages.
* The CAN-SPAM Act provides clearer criminal authority against spam, and gives the FTC additional tools to fight spam.
* The statute that the President just signed requires the FTC to develop a plan and timetable for a do-not-spam registry by next June. The law authorizes but does not require us to implement a do-not-spam registry. We will do an in depth study of whether such a registry is technologically feasible, whether it will be effective, and how much it would cost.
* The CAN-SPAM Act requires the FTC to report to Congress within 18 months on the feasibility of requiring an ADV (advertisement) label in the subject line in all unsolicited commercial email. Unfortunately, we have previously studied this issue, finding that only two percent of spam currently carries an ADV label, despite the fact that numerous state laws, including California’s, require the label.

The new anti-spam bill has been hailed around the Internet. AOL, one of the largest Internet service providers praised the bill in a release that was sent out after the anti-spam bill was passed. “This new law will send a strong signal to the spam kingpins: membership in the spam club has its consequences. If you send junk email using outlaw tactics to AOL’s members, we will work with law enforcement to bring the harshest penalties possible - including fines and even jail time.”

“This legislation is a victory for consumers and the internet,” added web portal giant Yahoo!. “It provides businesses with important new legal weapons in the ongoing battle against spam.

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