Unsolicited email advertising already illegal in US?

[Ian Goldberg <iang@cs.berkeley.edu>]

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This piece from RISKS looks interesting.  My computer certainly _is_

    "equipment which has the capacity to transcribe text or images
    (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular
    telephone line onto paper."

Now, are HipCrime et al. liable for $500 in damages for each piece of spam?
If so, where do I sign up?

   - Ian

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Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 19:46:42 -0400
From: Dan Franklin <dan@copernicus.bbn.com>
Subject: Sometimes junk e-mail is already a fax, legally speaking

I've been using the following legal information, which I picked up from
another mailing list (Keith Bostic's /dev/null list), in my responses to
junk e-mail these days.  So far I haven't yet received junk e-mail on my
home computer while it had a printer attached, but one of these days...

Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C):
 
        "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to
         use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device
         to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile
         machine"

A "telephone facsimile machine" is defined in Sec.227(a)(2)(B) as:

        "equipment which has the capacity to transcribe text or images
         (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular
         telephone line onto paper."

Under this definition, an e-mail account, modem, computer and printer
together constitute a fax machine.

The rights of action are as follows.  Under Sec.227(b)(3)(B):

        "A person or entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or
         rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate court of
         that State --

          (A) an action based on a violation of this subsection or the
              regulations prescribed under this subsection to enjoin
              such violation,
          (B) an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a
              violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each such
              violation, whichever is greater, or
          (C) both such actions. If the court finds that the defendant
              willfully or knowingly violated this subsection or the
              regulations prescribed under this subsection, the court
              may, in its discretion, increase the amount of the award
              to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the amount
              available under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph."

For the full legal text USC Title 47, Section 227, see:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html

Dan Franklin  dfranklin@bbn.com


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