America Online Joins Ohio Lawmakers in Unveiling Latest State Antispam Proposal That Seeks Tough, Criminal Penalties against Spammers.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2004 AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Stepping Up State-by-State Efforts for Tougher Antispam Laws Sending junk email over internet networks located in the State of Ohio could result in stiff, criminal penalties if a new proposal - backed today by America Online See AOL. and its Ohio-based web access businesses - is enacted into law. The world's leading interactive services company today announced a new antispam initiative in Ohio that would complement its public policy efforts at the state and Federal level to fight back against spam and spammers on behalf of its members. AOL announced its support of and advocacy for a strong new antispam proposal authored by State Representative Kathleen Walcher (District 58-Norwalk), which is based on the nation's toughest law against junk email in Virginia. State Rep. Walcher's newly introduced legislation (H.B. 383) would impose harsh criminal penalties against the most egregious spammers who use tactics of fraud and deceit to get spam into the email inboxes of online consumers. These sanctions, enforceable by state authorities in Ohio, include jail time, asset forfeiture Asset forfeiture is a term used to describe the confiscation of assets, by the State, which are either (a) the proceeds of crime or (b) the instrumentalities of crime. Instrumentalities of crime are property that was used to facilitate crime, for example cars used to transport , and monetary penalties. AOL's support for this new proposal was announced by Joel Davidson, Executive Vice President for Web Access, for America Online, at a Capitol news conference in Columbus with State Rep. Walcher this afternoon. AOL's Web Access business, based in Upper Arlington, Ohio Upper Arlington is a suburban city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus metropolitan area. The population was 33,686 at the 2000 census. Geography Upper Arlington is located at (40. , comprises the CompuServe, Netscape Internet Service, and Wal-Mart Connect online services. "While no state or Federal law is a spam 'cure-all', tough, new state antispam proposals like Representative Walcher's can have a tremendous impact as part of a comprehensive, multi-faceted effort that includes a combination of corporate litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. , online industry collaboration, new antispam technologies, enhanced tools and features placed at the fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. of our members, and stronger spam filtering at the email server See mail server. level," said Mr. Davidson. Mr. Davidson added: "If Representative Walcher's proposal is enacted, and if our members continue to refer spam to us on a daily basis, there is no reason to believe we can't send spammers to the slammer A worm that caused a billion dollars worth of damage on the Internet on January 25, 2003. Slammer infected computers all over the Internet by generating random IP addresses and causing the computer's buffer to overflow with its own instructions that replicate itself and start the process in Ohio. The time has come for swift action. The time to 'can the spam' is now." The legislation is timely and critical to AOL, and more directly to its internet access See how to access the Internet. services whose network infrastructure is located in the State of Ohio - such as CompuServe. Under this new law, spammers sending large volumes of junk emails using tactics of fraud, deceit and evasion to members of these internet services would be subject to severe sanctions and damages. If enacted, this new state law would work hand-in-hand with the tough new Federal law - the 2003 CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003) A U.S. statute effective January 1, 2004 that allows spammers to be fined up to $6 million. Act - which AOL strongly endorsed. It would also give Ohio residents and officials added enforcement tools to combat spam with criminal and civil penalties. The Ohio junk email proposal was also crafted and structured in a way that would allow it not to be pre-empted by the new Federal antispam law. Additionally, this legislation has lower thresholds for legal action against spammers - no matter where they live in the country - than does the new Federal antispam law. This would give state authorities in Ohio more options in bringing criminal actions against the worst, most egregious spam offenders. State officials do not have authority to bring criminal actions under Federal law. Said Rep. Walcher: "With advancements in technology come new techniques used by spammers to deceive Ohioans. The state of Ohio needs to stay on the forefront to protect its citizens from this deceitful practice." The Ohio junk email proposal is modeled after Virginia's new state law, which went into effect on July 1st and has already been successfully used by AOL and state law enforcement officials to file criminal prosecutions against two of the most notorious spammers known to industry groups and ISPs. AOL continues to be an industry leader in the ongoing an aggressive fight on a state and Federal level to craft and adopt tough, rigorous new public laws that hold spammers accountable for their outlaw tactics of deceit, fraud and evasion. In addition to its public advocacy campaigns on spam in Virginia and in the U.S. Congress - which produced milestone victories on behalf of its members and all online consumers in 2003 - AOL is working with lawmakers in other states toward the goal of ensuring that public laws evolve to keep pace with the ever-changing, complex nature of spam. About America Online, Inc. America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services. |
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