The battle against spam is heating up as Internet service providers take legal action against companies that send unwanted e-mails in bulk.
Microsoft, Yahoo and the Internet service providers Earthlink and America Online are teaming up to file lawsuits against spammers, which is possible under a new law called the Controlling The Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, also known as the CAN SPAM Act. The law allows ISPs to sue spammers, but not individuals.
ISPs are also allowed to collect up to $1 million in damages.
The legislation, which became law in December, prohibits spammers from using deceptive subject lines in order to lure the user to view an e-mail. It also requires spammers to label their e-mails as spam and provide a chance for users to put themselves on an "opt out" list in order to stop receiving unsolicited e-mail.
Under the law, spammers can be put in prison for up to five years.
Unwanted e-mail has become a major issue for AU because of the flood of spam coming into the University's computer network. Recently, many students have received spam in their AU e-mail accounts.
To combat this, e-operations set up an anti-spam system.
This system does not "filter" e-mail, like many traditional methods. Instead, "all e-mail is automatically processed before delivery and specially flagged if it has a high likelihood of being spam," according to the e-operations Web site.
After the e-mail is flagged, the user has the option of isolating the e-mail, deleting it or ignoring it. It is also possible to select the "confidence level" as a basis for automatic processing.
Automatic processing refers to whether the user wants to ignore, delete or isolate the e-mail after receiving it.
The University is also passively monitoring the legislative developments in the battle against spam.
"Since the legislation is fairly new, it is too early to tell whether or not it will be effective. Only time will tell," said Justin Perillo, a fellow in AU's Office of General Counsel.
Under the law, the University is allowed to file suit against spammers, but is currently not considering this action.
"However, the University will take any action necessary to maintain and provide the technology services required by the AU community," Perillo said.
AU, as an Internet service provider, can bring civil suit and recover damages of $250 per e-mail, but there is a cap of $2 million in damages.
In certain circumstances, the civil suit can hand out damages of three times the original amount of the damages.
Outside of AU, some groups are upbeat about the law and some see it as ineffective.
The Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail feels the new law will prove ineffective in the long run. Despite this, the group is willing to give it more time, according to coalition spokesman John Mozena.
The group's argument against the law is the fact that it was mostly written by e-mail marketers, he said.
The law was rushed because California had recently written new spam legislation and the federal government wanted to catch up, Mozena said. This resulted in no public debate or hearings in Congress about the formulation of law.
New measures to combat spam will be attempted in the future despite the new legislation, Mozena said.
However, the Direct Marketing Association, which represents Internet marketers, among others, thinks the law is "well crafted," spokesman Jordan Cohen said.
While the group does not think the law will "end spam overnight," the association feels it will combat spam well when it is enforced and applied well, Cohen said.
Some spammers now disguise their e-mails by labeling the sender of the message as somebody the receiver is expecting to get e-mail from. Along with this tactic are others such as detecting weaknesses in networks and using e-mail accounts that cannot be responded to.
"It's an environment and spam is the pollution," Cohen said.
The association is also concerned when legitimate e-mail is accidentally caught in various anti-spam systems. According to Cohen, 17 percent of e-mail that gets caught in e-mail filters is a "false-positive," meaning the message caught is legitimate.
The DMA is also working with the FBI to build criminal cases against spammers under the legislation, Cohen said.
