Gates on spam: a danger to realising tech's full potential

NEWS Microsoft chairman Bill Gates weighed in on the spam debate for a congressional hearing yesterday, outlining in a letter the legal measures he believes are necessary to stop junk email. "The torrent of unwanted, unsolicited, often offensive and sometimes fraudulent email is eroding trust in technology, costing business billions of dollars a year, and decreasing our collective ability to realise technology's full potential," Gates wrote to Senators John McCain and Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Gates said a multifaceted approach, including industry self-regulation and legislation, are needed to lessen the scourge of junk email. Specifically, he proposed that Congress back a 'trusted seal' program that would require senders to identify themselves and adhere to a set of industry guidelines, or else have their email filtered. The concept has been discussed before but Microsoft's plan would allow marketers that abide by the rules to get around using an 'ADV' (short for advertisement) tag within a message's subject line. Wednesday's hearing included testimony from the likes of AOL, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) and the Network Advertising Initiative. The hearing furthered discussions that had begun at a three-day congressional summit on spam in April. It also reinforced a government mandate to pass some kind of spam law that makes sense for consumers and internet players. Lawmakers, internet service providers (ISPs), marketers and consumer advocates are all bent on finding means to mitigate unwanted email but differing opinions on how to do so threaten immediate action. In the six years since the first US federal anti-spam bill was proposed, multiple bills have stalled in Congress for lack of consensus. Legislators are tackling the issue with new vigour this year. "After the FTC [spam] conference in April, it became clear there were many voices speaking out with opinions in the fight against spam," said Senator Conrad Burns, at the hearing. He recently re-introduced a bill, now called the Can-Spam Act of 2003, with Ron Wyden. "There is an overwhelming cry for something to be done about spam, and I believe legislation is key in this effort." Enrique Salem, chief executive of spam-filtering company Brightmail, said it seems clear that members of Congress are determined to pass legislation this year. Salem recalled Senator McCain said he wanted to get a bill to the Senate floor by the end of the summer session. Still, the industry and lawmakers need to determine who are the trusted, legitimate emailers, and how to regulate them. "There will be federal legislation coming, and when it does happen, it will create one standard for how you prosecute spammers," he said. "Thirty states have legislation today but they're all different. If we get federal law, we'll have consistency." Salem said Microsoft's proposal was entered into the record and panellists were asked to review it and respond to the committee. He said the Burns-Wyden bill is on the right road to finding solutions, including requiring emailers to let consumers opt out of communications and giving ISPs and federal agencies the ability to pursue spammers. Microsoft's proposal is similar to bills from members of Congress, and it mirrors some industry self-regulation plans, including one proposed by email marketers. In another anti-spam move, Microsoft joined with AOL and Yahoo in April to sketch a broad outline calling for technical changes to email. Spam has become the white elephant of the public and businesses as it has grown to overpower legitimate email in the last year. According to industry estimates, spam comprises more than 50 percent of all email. Gates said that Microsoft supports the establishment of a global, independent trust authority to initiate and regulate a set of best practices. The rules should be governed by the global authority but overseen by the FTC, according to Microsoft's plan. The software giant also backs a law that would require all unsolicited email to be labelled 'ADV' in the subject line. Microsoft is planning an event next week in Silicon Valley to discuss its efforts against spam, including new technology and lobbying efforts. The proposal on Wednesday coincides with a flurry of activity in Congress and the tech industry to fight spam. Federal and state law-enforcement agencies last week pledged to take an aggressive new approach to stop spam by identifying 'open relay' mail servers that serve as conduits for massive quantities of junk email. The agencies sent letters to thousands of outlets that may be vulnerable to manipulation by spammers. ISPs including AOL, EarthLink and MSN have also filed dozens of lawsuits against junk mailers with some success. Stephanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com.