from the thx-4-the-gd-idea dept
While there have been lots of attempts to ban spam email (some
less effective than others), text-message spam sent to mobile phones has largely escaped legislative scrutiny. The CAN SPAM Act bans sending spam emails to phones, but it doesn't specifically address SMS. An Arizona court ruled earlier legislation covering autodialed telemarking calls also
banned SMS spam, but that decision didn't seem particularly solid. Other countries, like India, have
extended their Do Not Call lists to cover SMS spam, and now a couple of US senators have introduced legislation
that would do the same here. SMS spam hasn't become a huge problem in the US for a number of reasons, mainly because it costs spammers more than email spam, while it's also generally easier to track down those who sent it than with email. Still, it's nice to see a law seeking to get out ahead of something so annoying, rather than waiting until the cat's out of the bag and it's an uncontrollable situation.
Filed Under: bans, sms, sms spam
