John Kerry's stance on Censorship

Censorship: Congress enacted a new law, entitled the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003" ("CAN-SPAM Act"). The law, which was signed by the President on December 16, 2003 and took effect on January 1, 2004, imposes limitations and penalties on the transmission of unsolicited commercial e-mail via the Internet. This bill overrides all preexisting state anti-spam laws, puts numerous restrictions on the marketing e-mail messages companies can send to users, levies fines and jail terms for offenders and also allows the has authorized the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but did not require them to establish a "do-not-email" registry.

John Kerry:

Description of candidate's position: John Kerry supports the control of non-solicited "spam" and has discussed this issue in his "Plan for America," which can be found at the end of his quotation below. John Edwards voted for the bill to ratify the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to enable establishment of a Do-Not-Call Registry.

Quotation from the candidate: "We will redouble our nation's commitment to closing the 'digital divide' and expanding the digital economy, which will continue to transform how we work, communicate, shop, and relax, creating jobs and opportunity in the process…we will take action to 'can spam' and ensure online privacy to grow the digital economy…and support efforts to create 'digital signatures' that will make e-commerce vastly more secure and convenient." Link

Assessment of the proposal:

Positive: While both Kerry and Bush show they feel some measures need to be taken against "Spam" and unwanted emails. By the time the legislation was passed it was not quite as effect as many had hoped and was seen more as too little, too late. It is often hard for federal legislation to keep up with the ever-changing technology which the internet personifies. While some groups give them credit for trying it seems that the "CAN-SPAM" act was not able to keep up with the changing strategies of "Spammers" everywhere.

Negative: "Ten months since the CAN-SPAM law passed, spam is only increasing. The best hopes for spam suppression are filtering services and sender verification built into the Internet and e-mail protocols." Many organizations such as CATO, a conservative think tank, pointed to the fact that by setting up federal rules for the "Spammers" to follow the government was actually helping to increase the number of "Spam" emails sent out. They along with other organizations feel this act is actually just increasing the number of such emails. Link

Comparison: For both Bush and Kerry this does not seem to be an issue which attracts much attention in either campaign. The stump speeches from both candidates have not included the topic of spam or the "CAN-SPAM Act" in general. Though when the legislation went through both candidates seemed to agree that something needed to be done about the "non-solicited" emails.

Link to Bush's Issue Page