President Bush on Dec. 16 signed the Can Spam Act (S. 877); the law will take effect on Jan. 1.
“Spam [is] annoying to consumers and costly to our economy,” White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said after Bush signed the bill. “This will help address the problems associated with the rapid growth and abuse of spam by establishing a framework of technological, administrative, civil, and criminal tools, and by providing consumers with options to reduce the volume of unwanted e-mail.”
The bill, formally the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, was introduced by senators Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April. It was approved by the Senate in October, passed by the House in November, then passed in a revised form by the Senate in early December.