03/13/2003 01:32 PM Senate L&C

               HB  82-COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL                                                                            
                                                                                                                                
CHAIR BUNDE announced HB 82 to be up for consideration.                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN MEYER, sponsor of  HB 82, told members HB 82                                                               
prohibits  individuals  from   sending  unsolicited  e-mail  that                                                               
contains sexually  explicit material  unless the  subject heading                                                               
contains the communication "add:adlt".  Nine other states require                                                               
this same heading  for sexually explicit e-mail  and other states                                                               
have  pending  legislation.  Some  people call  this  a  consumer                                                               
protection bill, but he calls it a children's protection bill.                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
He said society tries to  protect children from getting this type                                                               
of material by requiring them to be  18 to go to an R-rated movie                                                               
or an  adult bookstore.  Yet children can  open their  e-mail and                                                               
see everything  we are trying  to protect them from.  In summary,                                                               
this bill does  two good things. By requiring  certain letters in                                                               
the  subject line,  adults can  start deleting  those e-mails  or                                                               
tell  their kids  not to  open them.  Parents can  also set  up a                                                               
filtering  system to  pick up  that subject  heading and  prevent                                                               
delivery of that e-mail.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
CHAIR BUNDE asked  how it could be enforced  and how out-of-state                                                               
violators would be prosecuted.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE MEYER  replied the Department of  Law has received                                                               
a lot of  complaints on this matter. The Department  of Law could                                                               
pursue it or individuals could take action themselves.                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
MR. ED  SNIFFEN, Assistant Attorney  General, supported HB  82 in                                                               
its  current  form.  He  said  it  has  no  legal  problems,  but                                                               
enforcement is a  trickier problem and could go only  so far out-                                                               
of-state. The  Department of  Law's normal  procedure is  to find                                                               
out as  much about the  sender as  possible, send them  cease and                                                               
desist letters  and hope  the sender  takes them  seriously. This                                                               
bill would give  the department another tool to use.  He said the                                                               
department really can't  stop people who thumb their  nose at the                                                               
law in this instance, but  he hopes this legislation would target                                                               
the majority of legitimate e-mail operators.                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
He pointed out the bill  contains language about computers and e-                                                               
mail within the state. However, a lot of companies would send e-                                                                
mail messages  without this  header to folks  in Alaska  who have                                                               
yahoo.com addresses because there's no  way a sender can identify                                                               
that those addresses are located in Alaska.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
CHAIR BUNDE said he hopes  other states enact similar legislation                                                               
and squeeze out the offenders.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR SEEKINS  moved to pass  CSHB 82(L&C) from  committee with                                                               
individual  recommendations.  SENATORS  DAVIS,  SEEKINS,  FRENCH,                                                               
STEVENS  AND BUNDE  voted in  favor and  CSHB 82(L&C)  moved from                                                               
committee.