Comments:

In over thirty years of working as a civil servant and as a federal contractor I have NEVER seen an instance in which laws and regulations have worked. These are written for individuals who are honest. The spammers have no incentive to follow these laws/regulations. Further, the technology is always much further ahead of the lawyers/regulators. These laws/regulations can only be enforced, if at all, within the US. There is nothing in the law to stop spam originating outside the US, and no way for the US government to enforce such laws when the originators are outside the US. I also feel that the definition of span be expanded to include unsolicited messages from non-commercial sources such as labor unions, political organizations, not-for-profit organizations, etc. My definition of spam is "any unsolicitated e-mail" regardless of source. I have no faith whatsoever in federal laws/regulations being able to do anything at all about spam, regardless of source. The only answer is to provide a technical solution from the industry, not the government.