By a vote of 50-3, the chamber approved Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “Slam Spam E-mail Act,” a measure that makes it a felony to send a high volume of commercial e-mail.

The proposal passed with an amendment, which stipulates e-mail defined as commercial spam must be intended to mislead recipients.

The measure now heads to the House.

Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) carried the bill for the governor. He said the bill would not solve the problem of spam but would be an important part of the solution.

“What this bill does is give tools to our small businesses, prosecutors and Internet Service Providers — tools we believe will be very effective in controlling spam,” Shafer said.

Senate Minority Whip David Adelman (D-Atlanta) said he did not think the bill would make a difference.

“Let’s make it clear to the people of Georgia that when we pass this anti-spam law it won’t stop spam, not one iota,” Adelman said. “We need to really manage the expectations of the people of the state of Georgia.”

At one point in the debate, Adelman asked Shafer whether the bill was a “great big nothing.”

Shafer retorted that Adelman had the option to vote “no” on the measure. Despite a lengthy debate with Shafer, Adelman voted “yes” on the bill.

Shafer said a provision in the bill gives the state attorney general, district attorneys and prosecutors the power to issue investigative subpoenas for computer crimes.

Adelman introduced a bill earlier this year on behalf of Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor that would give prosecutors the authority to investigate suspected sexual predators who use the Internet to lure minors.

Shafer argued the Spam Act would allow investigators to target commercial e-mail, sexual predators and other criminal acts carried out via the Internet.

Sen. J.B. Powell (D-Blythe) also asked why a person who suffered personal, property or economic damages from deceptive e-mail could receive damages of up to $2 million per incident, plus expenses of litigation and attorney’s fees.

Powell said the cap was too high, especially because the Senate and House recently approved a highly controversial measure capping non-economic damages for medical malpractice lawsuits at $350,000 for individuals. Perdue signed the medical malpractice limits into law earlier this month.

Powell’s amendment to set the spam damages cap at $350,000 failed.

Permalink | |