IS SPAM ILLEGAL?

   In a word: no.  However different states handle spam differently (see http://www.spamlaws.com for more information).
    A common misconception (and one that is highly quoted) is regarding Bill S.1618 and HR 3113.  Many messages you receive will claim that according to one (or both) of the above bills the message you're receiving is not legally considered spam.  Some even threaten legal action if you complain about it.
    The kicker?  Bill S.1618 never got passed into law.  It passed the Senate, but not the House of Representatives, so it was canned.  Due to this fact alone any  message touting this bill in the email is automatically spam, and can be filtered accordingly.  This is an example of how this bill is used in an email, taken from the very bottom of a real live spam in my Deleted Items folder:

This message is in full compliance with U.S. Federal requirements for commercial email under bill S.1618 Title lll, Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) passed by the 105th U.S. Congress and cannot be considered SPAM since it includes a remove mechanism. Your email address (#recipient#) will be automatically removed if you don't request more info. We make every effort to insure that the recipients of our direct marketing are those individuals who have asked to receive additional information on promotional offers from companies who offer internet marketing products. Again we apologize if this message has reached you in error. This Message Is NOT Intended For Residents Of WA, CA or VA.

    HR 3113 suffered a similar fate.  This bill passed the House of Representatives on July 18th 2000, but the Senate companion was not acted upon before the end of the Senate's 2000 session.  So it died, too.  No law, no dice.  That's spam, baby.

   We at ACD.net handle spam very easily: If the recipient didn't ask for it, it's spam.  We don't really care what you send out to people, but once somebody complains about it, it becomes our problem.  Complaints = blocked mail, and blocked mail = unhappy customers, and unhappy customers = unhappy internet support technicians.

    Even though spam is not quite illegal, it is against the Acceptable Use Policy or Terms of Service of just about every network in the country (foreign networks have policies regarding it as well, but they're not as prevalent and a bit harder to enforce).  This means if you can determine who's sending spam, you can report it to their administrator and they can lose their account on that network and have to look elsewhere.  ACD.net has a zero-tolerance policy (read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking HERE for more information) regarding spam.  If you spam, you're gone.  No refund.  Do not pass Go.  Do not collect $200.  In fact we have (on occasion) gone after spammers on our network for compensation of lost work time spent tracking them down.  Successfully, I might add.  So please don't do it. :-)

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