Congress about to pass anti-spam bill -- the details

[Declan McCullagh]

[...]

' 1037.
(a) IN GENERAL.Whoever, in or affecting inter- 23
state or foreign commerce, knowingly 24
November 21, 2003 (2:42 p.m.)
13
(1) accesses a protected computer without au- 1
thorization, and intentionally initiates the trans- 2
mission of multiple commercial electronic mail mes- 3
sages from or through such computer, 4
(2) uses a protected computer to relay or re- 5
transmit multiple commercial electronic mail mes- 6
sages, with the intent to deceive or mislead recipi- 7
ents, or any Internet access service, as to the origin 8
of such messages, 9
(3) materially falsifies header information in 10
multiple commercial electronic mail messages and in- 11
tentionally initiates the transmission of such mes- 12
sages, 13
(4) registers, using information that materially 14
falsifies the identity of the actual registrant, for 5 15
or more electronic mail accounts or online user ac- 16
counts or 2 or more domain names, and inten- 17
tionally initiates the transmission of multiple com- 18
mercial electronic mail messages from any combina- 19
tion of such accounts or domain names, or 20
(5) falsely represents oneself to be the reg- 21
istrant or the legitimate successor in interest to the 22
registrant of 5 or more Internet protocol addresses, 23
and intentionally initiates the transmission of mul- 24
S:\WPSHR\LEGCNSL\XYWRITE\CON03\SPAMCOMP.3
November 21, 2003 (2:42 p.m.)
14
tiple commercial electronic mail messages from such 1
addresses, 2
or conspires to do so, shall be punished as provided in 3
subsection (b). 4
(b) PENALTIES.The punishment for an offense 5
under subsection (a) is 6
(1) a fine under this title, imprisonment for 7
not more than 5 years, or both, if 8
(A) the offense is committed in further- 9
ance of any felony under the laws of the United 10
States or of any State; or 11
(B) the defendant has previously been 12
convicted under this section or section 1030, or 13
under the law of any State for conduct involv- 14
ing the transmission of multiple commercial 15
electronic mail messages or unauthorized access 16
to a computer system; 17
(2) a fine under this title, imprisonment for 18
not more than 3 years, or both, if 19
(A) the offense is an offense under sub- 20
section (a)(1); 21
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