Re: legislation

On Wed, 24 Feb 1999 16:32:40 +0100, Jan Meijer <Jan.Meijer@localhost
wrote:

> Virginia makes some progress in lawmaking:
> 
> http://members.aol.com/acluva/freespeech.htm
> 
> although it's been opposed.  Don't know if this is old news.
> 

The latest can be seen at
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/AP19990224_104.html

and at
http://nt.excite.com/news/r/990224/00/news-spam

from 7b1p2o$9c7$1@localhost in news.admin.net-abuse.email

> Here are some excerpts from the Reuters release:
>   ----------------------------
>   Lawmakers in Virginia, home to America Online Inc., the nation's
>   largest Internet service provider, adopted legislation Tuesday that
>   would make it a crime to send mass, unsolicited electronic
>   mailings, known as "spam," on the Internet.
> 
>   The bill, which Gov. James Gilmore has promised to sign, would
>   make Virginia the first state in the nation to have the power to
>   criminally prosecute people accused of spamming.

~~~

>   ACLU of Virginia's executive director, Kent Willis, said there was
>   little evidence that spamming was enough of a problem to justify
>   constraints on free speech on the Internet.
> 
>   "Expression is protected in the commercial context as well as the
>   noncommercial context, and no one has yet to come up with a
>   valid or compelling state interest in limiting the way e-mail is sent,"
>   he said.

GWM (B.)
-- 
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