Georgia Gets a Slam Spam E-Mail Law

According to the Georgia Govenor's press relase, today Sonny Perdue signed into law the Georgia Slam Spam E-mail Act. The Act provides penalties for the use of false or misleading practices, such as forging headers, using misleading subject headlines or falsely stating that the information in the e-mail was requested. Sending spam to Georgians from anywhere in the United States will be punishable as a felony where spammers:

• Send a high volume of spam, such as more than 10,000 messages in any 24 hour time period; or
• Generate more than $1,000 in revenue from a single spam message or more than $50,000 from all spam transmitted to any single Internet Service Provider (ISP); or
• Where the defendant knowingly uses a minor to assist in the transmission of spam.

Deceptive emails without these factors will be punished as a misdemeanor. Criminal penalties for a felony include a fine of not more than $50,000.00 or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. For a misdemeanor, penalties include a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or imprisonment of not more than 12 months, or both. The act also enables ISP's, such as EarthLink, and domain-owners to bring civil charges against the spammers for fraudulent and deceptive e-mail. The act does not limit or regulate in any way the sending of legitimate advertisements through e-mail.