California Spam Law (formerly SB 186)

• Unsolicited commercial e-mail may not be sent from California or to a California address. 
• The law applies to senders as well as to advertisers on whose behalf messages are sent. 
• Damages may be up to $1000 for each message sent to an individual, and up to $1 million per incident. 
• Exempted are companies that you (the e-mail recipient) have done business with, as well as companies whose commercial messages you have opted to receive. 

Federal Can-Spam Act of 2003 (S.877)

• Unsolicited commercial e-mail must be labeled, and must include opt-out instructions and the sender’s physical address. 
• Deceptive subject lines and false headers are prohibited. 
• Violators face jail sentences of up to a year and fines of up to $1 million. Repeat offenders face jail terms of up to five years. 
• Federal law preempts any state laws that prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail outright. 
• The FTC is authorized to establish a “do-not-e-mail” registry.

To be continued….