Anti-spam panel: Proposed laws aren't enough

State laws have raised awareness of the spam issue, however, Everett-Church said. "What we've seen in those states is a response to federal inaction on the issue," he said. "You see an outcry from consumers ... to address the problem, even if it is local."

Asked by FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson if the spam problem had reached a tipping point where federal legislation needed to be passed, Everett-Church said his group has been calling for a national anti-spam law since 1997, and Ferris Research estimates spam will cost U.S. businesses more than $10 billion in 2003. "I'm here to say we told you so," he said. "A bad legislative solution will only exacerbate the problem. It's past time for a solution."

Still, FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle urged those at the three-day spam forum to come up with several solutions, from the legislative to the technological. He advocated a technological fix that would allow e-mail users to receive e-mail only from people in their address books.

Swindle called e-mail the "killer app" of the Internet, and spam is putting the Internet in "grave danger," even causing the potential for national security problems. "Spam is going to kill the killer app if we don't do something about it," he said. "These end-users, these consumers, by the millions are absolutely getting fed up with spam. If we turn them off, the consequences economically, socially and development-wise are going to be extremely serious."