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15 U.S.C. § 7701 — Congressional findings and policy
Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Findings** The Congress finds the following:
(1) Electronic mail has become an extremely important and popular means of communication, relied on by millions of Americans on a daily basis for personal and commercial purposes. Its low cost and global reach make it extremely convenient and efficient, and offer unique opportunities for the development and growth of frictionless commerce.
(2) The convenience and efficiency of electronic mail are threatened by the extremely rapid growth in the volume of unsolicited commercial electronic mail. Unsolicited commercial electronic mail is currently estimated to account for over half of all electronic mail traffic, up from an estimated 7 percent in 2001, and the volume continues to rise. Most of these messages are fraudulent or deceptive in one or more respects.
(3) The receipt of unsolicited commercial electronic mail may result in costs to recipients who cannot refuse to accept such mail and who incur costs for the storage of such mail, or for the time spent accessing, reviewing, and discarding such mail, or for both.
(4) The receipt of a large number of unwanted messages also decreases the convenience of electronic mail and creates a risk that wanted electronic mail messages, both commercial and noncommercial, will be lost, overlooked, or discarded amidst the larger volume of unwanted messages, thus reducing the reliability and usefulness of electronic mail to the recipient.
(5) Some commercial electronic mail contains material that many recipients may consider vulgar or pornographic in nature.
(6) The growth in unsolicited commercial electronic mail imposes significant monetary costs on providers of Internet access services, businesses, and educational and nonprofit institutions that carry and receive such mail, as
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Stable record: federal_law:legal_authorities:record_usc_8de8d63c58d1002137dd5a46
Source file: Laws/federal/codes/united-states-code/title-15/section-7701-congressional-findings-and-policy--5724f99b79.md
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Source location: Title 15, Chapter 103, § 7701; chapter-103-controlling-the-assault-of-non-solicited-pornography-and-marketing.md
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**(a) Findings** The Congress finds the following:
(1) Electronic mail has become an extremely important and popular means of communication, relied on by millions of Americans on a daily basis for personal and commercial purposes. Its low cost and global reach make it extremely convenient and efficient, and offer unique opportunities for the development and growth of frictionless commerce.
(2) The convenience and efficiency of electronic mail are threatened by the extremely rapid growth in the volume of unsolicited commercial electronic mail. Unsolicited commercial electronic mail is currently estimated to account for over half of all electronic mail traffic, up from an estimated 7 percent in 2001, and the volume continues to rise. Most of these messages are fraudulent or deceptive in one or more respects.
(3) The receipt of unsolicited commercial electronic mail may result in costs to recipients who cannot refuse to accept such mail and who incur costs for the storage of such mail, or for the time spent accessing, reviewing, and discarding such mail, or for both.
(4) The receipt of a large number of unwanted messages also decreases the convenience of electronic mail and creates a risk that wanted electronic mail messages, both commercial and noncommercial, will be lost, overlooked, or discarded amidst the larger volume of unwanted messages, thus reducing the reliability and usefulness of electronic mail to the recipient.
(5) Some commercial electronic mail contains material that many recipients may consider vulgar or pornographic in nature.
(6) The growth in unsolicited commercial electronic mail imposes significant monetary costs on providers of Internet access services, businesses, and educational and nonprofit institutions that carry and receive such mail, as there is a finite volume of mail that such providers, businesses, and institutions can handle without further investment in infrastructure.
(7) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail purposefully disguise the source of such mail.
(8) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail purposefully include misleading information in the messages’ subject lines in order to induce the recipients to view the messages.
(9) While some senders of commercial electronic mail messages provide simple and reliable ways for recipients to reject (or “opt-out” of) receipt of commercial electronic mail from such senders in the future, other senders provide no such “opt-out” mechanism, or refuse to honor the requests of recipients not to receive electronic mail from such senders in the future, or both.
(10) Many senders of bulk unsolicited commercial electronic mail use computer programs to gather large numbers of electronic mail addresses on an automated basis from Internet websites or online services where users must post their addresses in order to make full use of the website or service.
(11) Many States have enacted legislation intended to regulate or reduce unsolicited commercial electronic mail, but these statutes impose different standards and requirements. As a result, they do not appear to have been successful in addressing the problems associated with unsolicited commercial electronic mail, in part because, since an electronic mail address does not specify a geographic location, it can be extremely difficult for law-abiding businesses to know with which of these disparate statutes they are required to comply.
(12) The problems associated with the rapid growth and abuse of unsolicited commercial electronic mail cannot be solved by Federal legislation alone. The development and adoption of technological approaches and the pursuit of cooperative efforts with other countries will be necessary as well.
**(b) Congressional determination of public policy** On the basis of the findings in subsection (a), the Congress determines that—
(1) there is a substantial government interest in regulation of commercial electronic mail on a nationwide basis;
(2) senders of commercial electronic mail should not mislead recipients as to the source or content of such mail; and
(3) recipients of commercial electronic mail have a right to decline to receive additional commercial electronic mail from the same source.
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a)** The Commission, by affirmative vote of at least four members of the Commission, and pursuant to its rules and regulations and consistent with all pertinent provisions of any Federal statute shall promulgate and distribute to all courts of the United States and to the United States Probation System—
(1) guidelines, as described in this section, for use of a sentencing court in determining the sentence to be imposed in a criminal case, including—
(A) a determination whether to impose a sentence to probation, a fine, or a term of imprisonment;
(B) a determination as to the appropriate amount of a fine or the appropriate length of a term of probation or a term of imprisonment;
(C) a determination whether a sentence to a term of imprisonment should include a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release after imprisonment, and, if so, the appropriate length of such a term;
(D) a determination whether multiple sentences to terms of imprisonment should be ordered to run concurrently or consecutively; and
(E) a determination under paragraphs (6) and (11) 11 See References in Text note below. of [section 3563(b) of title 18](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section3563/b&num=0&edition=prelim);
(2) general policy statements regarding application of the guidelines or any other aspect of sentencing or sentence implementation that in the view of the Commission would further the purposes set forth in [section 3553(a)(2) of title 18](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section3553/a/2&num=0&edition=prelim), United States Code, including the appropriate use of—
(A) the sanctions set forth in sections 3554, 3555, and 3556 of title 18;
(B) the conditions of proba
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 28 U.S.C. § 994
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) In General.—** Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly—
(1) accesses a protected computer without authorization, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from or through such computer,
(2) uses a protected computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial electronic mail messages, with the intent to deceive or mislead recipients, or any Internet access service, as to the origin of such messages,
(3) materially falsifies header information in multiple commercial electronic mail messages and intentionally initiates the transmission of such messages,
(4) registers, using information that materially falsifies the identity of the actual registrant, for five or more electronic mail accounts or online user accounts or two or more domain names, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from any combination of such accounts or domain names, or
(5) falsely represents oneself to be the registrant or the legitimate successor in interest to the registrant of 5 or more Internet Protocol addresses, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from such addresses,
or conspires to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
**(b) Penalties.—** The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) is—
(1) a fine under this title, imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both, if—
(A) the offense is committed in furtherance of any felony under the laws of the United States or of any State; or
(B) the defendant has previously been convicted under this section or section 1030, or under the law of any State for conduct involving the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail m
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Definitions** As used in this section—
(1) The term “automatic telephone dialing system” means equipment which has the capacity—
(A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and
(B) to dial such numbers.
(2) The term “established business relationship”, for purposes only of subsection (b)(1)(C)(i), shall have the meaning given the term in section 64.1200 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on January 1, 2003, except that—
(A) such term shall include a relationship between a person or entity and a business subscriber subject to the same terms applicable under such section to a relationship between a person or entity and a residential subscriber; and
(B) an established business relationship shall be subject to any time limitation established pursuant to paragraph (2)(G)).11 So in original. Second closing parenthesis probably should not appear.
(3) The term “telephone facsimile machine” means equipment which has the capacity (A) to transcribe text or images, or both, from paper into an electronic signal and to transmit that signal over a regular telephone line, or (B) to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper.
(4) The term “telephone solicitation” means the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person, but such term does not include a call or message (A) to any person with that person’s prior express invitation or permission, (B) to any person with whom the caller has an established business relationship, or (C) by a tax exempt nonprofit organization.
(5) The term “un
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) In general** Not later than 6 months after December 16, 2003, the Commission shall transmit to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce a report that—
(1) sets forth a plan and timetable for establishing a nationwide marketing Do-Not-E-Mail registry;
(2) includes an explanation of any practical, technical, security, privacy, enforceability, or other concerns that the Commission has regarding such a registry; and
(3) includes an explanation of how the registry would be applied with respect to children with e-mail accounts.
**(b) Authorization to implement** The Commission may establish and implement the plan, but not earlier than 9 months after December 16, 2003.
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7708
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
In this chapter:
(1) **Affirmative consent** — The term “affirmative consent”, when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means that—
(A) the recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such consent or at the recipient’s own initiative; and
(B) if the message is from a party other than the party to which the recipient communicated such consent, the recipient was given clear and conspicuous notice at the time the consent was communicated that the recipient’s electronic mail address could be transferred to such other party for the purpose of initiating commercial electronic mail messages.
(2) **Commercial electronic mail message**
(A) *In general* — The term “commercial electronic mail message” means any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose).
(B) *Transactional or relationship messages* — The term “commercial electronic mail message” does not include a transactional or relationship message.
(C) *Regulations regarding primary purpose* — Not later than 12 months after December 16, 2003, the Commission shall issue regulations pursuant to [section 7711 of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title15-section7711&num=0&edition=prelim) defining the relevant criteria to facilitate the determination of the primary purpose of an electronic mail message.
(D) *Reference to company or website* — The inclusion of a reference to a commercial entity or a link to the website of a commercial entity in an electronic mail message does not, by itself, cause such message to be treat
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7702
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Omitted**
**(b) United States Sentencing Commission**
(1) **Directive** — Pursuant to its authority under [section 994(p) of title 28](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title28-section994/p&num=0&edition=prelim) and in accordance with this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall review and, as appropriate, amend the sentencing guidelines and policy statements to provide appropriate penalties for violations of [section 1037 of title 18](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section1037&num=0&edition=prelim), as added by this section, and other offenses that may be facilitated by the sending of large quantities of unsolicited electronic mail.
(2) **Requirements** — In carrying out this subsection, the Sentencing Commission shall consider providing sentencing enhancements for—
(A) those convicted under [section 1037 of title 18](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section1037&num=0&edition=prelim) who—
(i) obtained electronic mail addresses through improper means, including—
(I) harvesting electronic mail addresses of the users of a website, proprietary service, or other online public forum operated by another person, without the authorization of such person; and
(II) randomly generating electronic mail addresses by computer; or
(ii) knew that the commercial electronic mail messages involved in the offense contained or advertised an Internet domain for which the registrant of the domain had provided false registration information; and
(B) those convicted of other offenses, including offenses involving fraud, identity theft, obscenity, child pornography, and the sexual exploitation of children, if such offenses involved the sending
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7703
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Requirements for transmission of messages**
(1) **Prohibition of false or misleading transmission information** — It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer, of a commercial electronic mail message, or a transactional or relationship message, that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially false or materially misleading. For purposes of this paragraph—
(A) header information that is technically accurate but includes an originating electronic mail address, domain name, or Internet Protocol address the access to which for purposes of initiating the message was obtained by means of false or fraudulent pretenses or representations shall be considered materially misleading;
(B) a “from” line (the line identifying or purporting to identify a person initiating the message) that accurately identifies any person who initiated the message shall not be considered materially false or materially misleading; and
(C) header information shall be considered materially misleading if it fails to identify accurately a protected computer used to initiate the message because the person initiating the message knowingly uses another protected computer to relay or retransmit the message for purposes of disguising its origin.
(2) **Prohibition of deceptive subject headings** — It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission to a protected computer of a commercial electronic mail message if such person has actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that a subject heading of the message would be likely to mislead a recipient, acting reasonably under the circumstances, about a material fact regarding the contents or subject matter of the message (consistent wit
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7704
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) In general** It is unlawful for a person to promote, or allow the promotion of, that person’s trade or business, or goods, products, property, or services sold, offered for sale, leased or offered for lease, or otherwise made available through that trade or business, in a commercial electronic mail message the transmission of which is in violation of [section 7704(a)(1) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title15-section7704/a/1&num=0&edition=prelim) if that person—
(1) knows, or should have known in the ordinary course of that person’s trade or business, that the goods, products, property, or services sold, offered for sale, leased or offered for lease, or otherwise made available through that trade or business were being promoted in such a message;
(2) received or expected to receive an economic benefit from such promotion; and
(3) took no reasonable action—
(A) to prevent the transmission; or
(B) to detect the transmission and report it to the Commission.
**(b) Limited enforcement against third parties**
(1) **In general** — Except as provided in paragraph (2), a person (hereinafter referred to as the “third party”) that provides goods, products, property, or services to another person that violates subsection (a) shall not be held liable for such violation.
(2) **Exception** — Liability for a violation of subsection (a) shall be imputed to a third party that provides goods, products, property, or services to another person that violates subsection (a) if that third party—
(A) owns, or has a greater than 50 percent ownership or economic interest in, the trade or business of the person that violated subsection (a); or
(B)
(i) has actual knowledge that goods, products, property, or services are promot
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7705
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Violation is unfair or deceptive act or practice** Except as provided in subsection (b), this chapter shall be enforced by the Commission as if the violation of this chapter were an unfair or deceptive act or practice proscribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act ([15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title15-section57a/a/1/B&num=0&edition=prelim)).
**(b) Enforcement by certain other agencies** Compliance with this chapter shall be enforced—
(1) under section 8 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act ([12 U.S.C. 1818](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title12-section1818&num=0&edition=prelim)), in the case of—
(A) national banks, and Federal branches and Federal agencies of foreign banks, by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency;
(B) member banks of the Federal Reserve System (other than national banks), branches and agencies of foreign banks (other than Federal branches, Federal agencies, and insured State branches of foreign banks), commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks, organizations operating under section 25 or 25A of the Federal Reserve Act ([12 U.S.C. 601](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title12-section601&num=0&edition=prelim) and 611), and bank holding companies, by the Board;
(C) banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (other than members of the Federal Reserve System) and insured State branches of foreign banks, by the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and
(D) savings associations the deposits of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, by the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision;
(2) under the Fed
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7706
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Federal law — U.S. Code and appendices · legal_authorities
**(a) Federal law**
(1) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to impair the enforcement of section 223 or 231 of title 47, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, or any other Federal criminal statute.
(2) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect in any way the Commission’s authority to bring enforcement actions under FTC Act for materially false or deceptive representations or unfair practices in commercial electronic mail messages.
**(b) State law**
(1) **In general** — This chapter supersedes any statute, regulation, or rule of a State or political subdivision of a State that expressly regulates the use of electronic mail to send commercial messages, except to the extent that any such statute, regulation, or rule prohibits falsity or deception in any portion of a commercial electronic mail message or information attached thereto.
(2) **State law not specific to electronic mail** — This chapter shall not be construed to preempt the applicability of—
(A) State laws that are not specific to electronic mail, including State trespass, contract, or tort law; or
(B) other State laws to the extent that those laws relate to acts of fraud or computer crime.
**(c) No effect on policies of providers of Internet access service** Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to have any effect on the lawfulness or unlawfulness, under any other provision of law, of the adoption, implementation, or enforcement by a provider of Internet access service of a policy of declining to transmit, route, relay, handle, or store certain types of electronic mail messages.
Source: Supplied U.S. Code snapshot — release unconfirmed · 15 U.S.C. § 7707
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