California Cracks Down Hard on Spammers

California Governor Gray Davis signed legislation that prohibits advertisers from sending unsolicited email and said the law contains no loopholes that can be used to thwart it. According to reports at eWeek and Internet.com, the law targets the companies that send unsolicited advertisements as well as the companies whose products are advertised in such email. Violators would include those entities who send mail from California, to California, or through servers in California.

Those users who break the new civil law face fines of up to $1000 per email and $1 million per incident. Users would have to opt in to any mailings unless the receiver had engaged in business transactions with an advertising company in the past. In the latter case, the company would need to provide a means for the recipient to opt out of future mailings.