None of the bills listed here were enacted into law.

(Please read this note if you were referred to this web site by an unsolicited advertisement that you received via electronic mail.)

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Unenacted bills:

Anti-Spamming Act of 2001 (H.R. 718)

H.R. 718 was introduced in February 2001 as the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001, by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), with 67 co-sponsors. As introduced the bill was identical to H.R. 95. The bill was amended on several occasions during 2001; the version that emerged from the Judiciary Committee in June 2001 bears little resemblance to the original.

The current version of H.R. 718 would prohibit false headers in unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail messages, and would require labels on sexually oriented commercial e-mail messages.

Anti-Spamming Act of 2001 (H.R. 1017)

H.R. 1017 was introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) in March 2001. It would amend federal computer crime laws to make it illegal to send unsolicited bulk e-mail messages containing a false sender address or header, or to distribute software designed for this purpose.

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act of 2001/2002 (S. 630)

S. 630 was introduced by Sen. Conrad R. Burns (R-MT) in March 2001. It would require unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labelled and to include opt-out instructions, and would prohibit deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages.

S. 630 was amended in the Senate Commerce Committee in May 2002 to include a provision prohibiting the use of e-mail addresses harvested from web sites in violation of posted restrictions.

Netizens Protection Act of 2001 (H.R. 3146)

H.R. 3146 was introduced by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) in October 2001; it is identical to the Netizens Protection Act of 1999, which was introduced by Rep. Smith in the 106th Congress. H.R. 3146 would require all unsolicited e-mail messages to contain the sender's name, physical address, and e-mail address, along with opt-out instructions. False or misleading subject lines would be prohibited on unsolicited bulk e-mail messages. These requirements would not pre-empt state laws governing unsolicited commercial e-mail. Internet providers would be required to notify their customers of their policies on unsolicited e-mail, and would be able to sue customers for violations.

Protect Children From E-Mail Smut Act of 2001 (H.R. 2472)

H.R. 2472 would require labels (in a format to be prescribed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology) to be included on sexually oriented commercial e-mail messages forwarded to children.

Who Is E-Mailing Our Kids Act (H.R. 1846)

H.R. 1846 would require schools and libraries that receive universal service assistance funds to adopt policies that prohibit users from sending e-mail anonymously.

Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001 (H.R. 95)

H.R. 95 would require unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labelled and to include opt-out instructions, and would prohibit false headers in such messages. It would prohibit the use of a provider's facilities to send unsolicited commercial e-mail in violation of the provider's policies, if the policies are clearly posted on a web site at the domain name included in the recipient's e-mail address or are made available by an FTC-approved standard method (presumably, via the provider's SMTP server).

H.R. 95, as introduced in January 2001, is identical to H.R. 3113 from the 106th Congress, in the form that bill was passed by the House of Representatives. The House Committee on Commerce published a report on H.R. 3113 in June 2000.  H.R. 95 was introduced by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), who subsequently co-sponsored another identical bill, H.R. 718.

Wireless Telephone Spam Protection Act (H.R. 113)

H.R. 113 addresses cellular phone spam. Introduced in January 2001, the bill would prohibit the use of wireless messaging systems to send unsolicited advertisements.