President Bush signs anti-spam bill

Tuesday, December 16, 2003 Posted: 1:27 PM EST (1827 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed legislation Tuesday meant to stem the flood of unwanted e-mail pitches, a problem he believes is hurting the economy.

The bill was among several Bush was signing during the day. He signed several others previously but was posing at official signing ceremonies for them throughout the day.

"Spam, or unsolicited e-mails are annoying to consumers and costly to our economy," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said after Bush signed the bill.

"This will help address the problems associated with the rapid growth and abuse of spam by establishing a framework of technological, administrative civil and criminal tools, and by providing consumers with options to reduce the volume of unwanted e-mail," McClellan said.

The bill supplants anti-spam laws already passed in some states, including California. It also encourages the Federal Trade Commission to create a do-not-spam list of e-mail addresses and includes penalties for spammers of up to five years in prison in rare circumstances.