Dylan Greene dot com

Something that bugs me about the Bush Administration is how many illegal and unethical things they do, laws they pass, and business agreements they get away with, but have near zero opposition from Congress or mainstream press. People went nuts when Clinton had an affair in the White House, but hardly anybody really stirs as Bush tears apart our country with lies, deceit, and bogus laws such as CAN-SPAM.

This new CAN-SPAM law tops the list for me right now because I get between 500 and 1000 spam messages a day. The new law does not make spamming illegal but instead lists what spamers CAN do, hence the name.

Here are some things I've learned:

1) Consumers and ISP's cannot sue Spammers, only the federal government can do anything (and we know that won't happen).

2) CAN-SPAM makes California's requirement to "Opt In" to spam lists illegal. Bush made it illegal for any state to pass a stronger Anti-Spam law than CAN-SPAN.

3) This law says that Spammers can add anybody they want to their lists. Popular methods include using cheap software that scans web pages, chat rooms, message boards, mailing lists, and any other source for valid-looking email address. CAN-SPAM makes doing this legal, even though this practice is considered trespassing and unlawful entry by those that host the web sites and chat rooms.

4) Spamers also get email addresses by buying CDs with millions of email addresses for about $30. CAN-SPAM makes this legal. People are making money selling your email address and there is nothing you can do about it. CAN-SPAM makes it illegal to sue those that sell the CD's. CAN-SPAM makes it illegal to ask to collect royalties on the use of your email address.

5) CAN-SPAM says that Spammers can send pornographic and ads for body enhancements to anybody and everybody - including minors - as long as the subject is "informative." CAN-SPAM does not specify what "informative" means.

6) CAN-SPAM makes it legal to scan web sites that target children (like Kids.msn.com) to collect email addresses, and then send pornographic emails to those addresses.

7) This law specifies that all spam messages are supposed to put an "Opt Out button" to give receivers the option of not getting those emails anymore. As most people know, clicking on "Opt Out" in a spam mail list simply marks those people as a suckers that reads their spam mail and puts those email address in a coveted, more expensive, email address list.

8) The law does not specify how the Opt Out should work. It does not set fines for when it does not work. It even makes it legal to turn around sell the list of Opt-Out email address list to other spammers.

9) The law suggests that a national Do-Not-Email list be set up, but does not say how it should happen, who should be in charge, where budget for this will come from, or how to keep that list away from spammers who will just use it as a free list of emails to send spam to.

10) The law does nothing for off-shore spamming. Bush apparently does not realize that sending spam mail costs nothing and can be done from anywhere in the world.

BONUS) Typically any law put in effect will get the usual congressional investigations, time for outside opinions and debates, and will have the amount of detail required so that the law can be consistently interpreted. President Bush suspended those investigations, debates, and additional time usually spent on a bill so that he could pass it before California could put their ANTI-SPAM law into effect. The only group that was given an opportunity for input on this new law was the Direct Marketing Association of America - the group responsible for that regular flow of junk mail in your postal mail box and sales calls while you are trying to have dinner.

This law does nothing for us. CAN-SPAM is a Spammers' Bill of Rights and spits in the face of every spam-receiving American.

Is it not time for us to do something about this? Must we sit and wait until Election Day to voice our opinions?