There is good news and bad news about junk email. The good news is, according to sources in State Government, the Federal “CAN-SPAM” law does not pre-empt the Washington State law. A preliminary opinion reads in part: “Section 8 of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 expressly preempts state law that “expressly regulates the use of electronic mail to send commercial messages, except to the extent that any such statute, regulation, or rule prohibits falsity or deception in any portion of a commercial electronic mail message or information attached thereto.”

Section 8 goes on to state that it is not to be construed to pre-empt the applicability of “(A) State laws that are not specific to electronic mail, including State trespass, contract, or tort law; or (B) other State laws to the extent that those laws relate to acts of fraud or computer crime.”

This opinion confirms that of other industry and legal experts. It at least suggests that all provisions of the Washington State law remain in affect, including the right of private action. Only time and the courts will tell for sure, but the reading of the Federal law appears clear. Unfortunately, it does not solve the problem of a new flood of internet spam email.

The bad news is that industry insiders report that spam has increased by as much as 30 percent since the CAN-SPAM act was passed and signed into law, a result predicted by anti-spam opponents who felt that the new law was a license to spam.

Members of the Washington Association of Internet Service Providers (WAISP) report an increase of 20 to 30 percent in spam loads since CAN-SPAM became law, and at least two report having to add additional email servers just to filter out the spam.

• Examples are:
  Stats for the week of Jan 4 - 11.
  (This is for two domains’ email addresses only,
  no Virtual Server or Private mail server stats are included.)
  Total Spam Blocked – 498,007
  Total Mail Processed – 560,218
  89 percent of the mail processed was Spam.
  This does not include counts for blocked email at the router level that never reached our servers.

• Also:
  Reported on January 19:
  15,455 messages passing by filters.
  112,444 messages blocked by filters.
  127,899 total messages processed in last 36 hours.
  88 percent Spam.

   The bottom line is that half measures and band-aid laws are not working, especially laws without a means to enforce them. With the ability of spammers to move their virtual-servers to safe havens around the world, more resources are required to bring them to account than small ISPs, small businesses, or individuals can bring to bear.

Finally, for those who argue that only technology can solve the problem there is this thought: technology has been no more affective at reducing the flood of junk email than patchwork laws have been. It will take strong doses of both effective laws with teeth and claws, and affective use of technology, to solve the ever-growing problem. Absent that commitment, get used to the idea of lots of the stuff we all love to hate, and not much else.