Spam Haven State Gets Anti-Spam Law  
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - 1 Comment, Last updated 05/12/2004

As you might imagine, Aunty got lots of calls from reporters today about the OptInRealBig v. SpamCop TRO. However, one call from a reporter in Washington D.C. took Aunty by surprise. They did not want to talk about Mr. Richter and SpamCop. They wanted to get Aunty’s thoughts on this:

Probably the last state on the planet to do so, Florida has just passed an anti-spam law.

Yay.

The law is very similar in many ways to CAN-SPAM, the Federal law which at least in theory will preempt this new Florida law. Among other things it provides for a fine of up to $500 per email/incident, and prohibits domain spoofing (or, as the new Florida law calls it, using the domain of a third-party without their permission).

Now all that remains to be seen is whether they will actually enforce it. Cleaning up their hotbed of spammers would also serve to clean up their name.

You can read the text of the new law here.