On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 06:41:19PM -0500, Christopher J. Carlson wrote:
> Tim Pawlenty was the Chief Author of the Internet Privacy Bill
> which would make spammers put ADV in the subject (ADV-ADULT for
> adult mailings) and impose some pretty impressive fines for those
> that didn't.

Bah -- subject line tagging is a milquetoast "feel good" solution.
Once the email is in the inbox, it's already done half the damage.
What I'd like to see is legislation that:
 - cranks up fines for UBE, period
 - explicitly categorizes blocklists as protected first
   amendment expression (no more bogus MAPS lawsuits)
 - doesn't have exceptions, e.g. nonprofits and political
   campaigners (don't hold your breath kids)

Anything less is just kowtowing to moneyed interests (i.e. the DMA,
major political parties, etc.).  But (s)he who has the gold, makes
the rules these days.

My guess is that Independent or Green is going to have the most
overlap with free software ideas.  Tell you what -- as an
experiment I'll volunteer to write to the gubernatorial and
senatorial candidates and see what happens.  Place your bets.

-- 
trammell at el-swifto.com  9EC7 BC6D E688 A184 9F58  FD4C 2C12 CC14 8ABA 36F5
Twin Cities Linux Users Group (TCLUG) Mailing List http://www.mn-linux.org
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota                irc.openprojects.net #tclug