As much as Open Door Networks dislikes the idea of using legislation to solve Internet problems, we believe that in the case of spam, the law may be a necessary tool. We believe this for a number of reasons:

1. The motivation is high for spammers to continue. Although it's hard to believe, spammers are apparently making enough money at what they do -- either sending spam, or selling mail lists to would-be spammers -- that they are motivated to continue.
2. The stakes are so high. Email is one of the best, and most widely used, services on the Internet, but spam may threaten to render email useless, especially if the projected growth rates of spam are accurate.
3. There is no technical solution that will fully address the issue.

For these reasons, we think it's important to stay abreast of, and support, legislative attempts to deal with spam. A summary of current and proposed legislation is available at SpamLaws.com. By visiting the site occasionally, you can stay abreast of what legislation is proposed, and even contact the appropriate government representatives to make your views known.

As of this writing, a few items of interest are:

• The Federal CAN-SPAM act - This law requires unsolicited commercial email messages to be labeled and to include opt-out instructions and the sender's physical address. It also prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers.
• California's laws - It is now illegal to send unsolicited commercial e-mail from California or to a California email address. The law applies to senders as well as to advertisers on whose behalf messages are sent.

Enforcement is, of course, one of the big problems with legislation. First, the money required to administer enforcement is often inadequate. Second, enforcement is difficult in cyberspace. It's one thing to track down an offending IP address, but quite another to associate that IP address with an individual in a way that constitutes sufficient evidence. And finally, much spam comes from other countries, requiring international cooperation regarding both legislation and enforcement. This will likely take time to develop.