Bill Text: NY S02260 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to unauthorized and misleading electronic mail.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS [S02260 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S02260-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2260 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 23, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions AN ACT to amend the business corporation law, in relation to unauthor- ized and misleading electronic mail The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The business corporation law is amended by adding a new 2 article 18 to read as follows: 3 ARTICLE 18 4 UNAUTHORIZED AND 5 MISLEADING ELECTRONIC MAIL 6 Section 1801. Definitions. 7 1802. Misleading electronic mail; prohibition. 8 1803. Violations and damages. 9 § 1801. Definitions. 10 For the purposes of this article, the following terms have the follow- 11 ing meanings: 12 (a) "Assist the transmission" means actions taken by a person to 13 provide substantial assistance or support which enables any person to 14 formulate, compose, send, originate, initiate or transmit a commercial 15 electronic mail message when the person providing the assistance knows 16 or consciously avoids knowing that the initiator of the commercial elec- 17 tronic mail message is engaged or intends to engage, in any practice 18 that violates the provisions of this article. 19 (b) "Commercial electronic mail message" means an electronic mail 20 message sent for the purpose of advertising or promoting material for 21 the lease, sale, rental, gift offer or other disposition of any realty, 22 goods, services or extension of credit. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05443-01-9S. 2260 2 1 (c) "Electronic mail address" means a destination, commonly expressed 2 as a string of characters, to which electronic mail may be sent or 3 delivered. 4 (d) "Initiate the transmission" refers to the action by the original 5 sender of an electronic mail message, not to the action by any interven- 6 ing interactive computer service that may handle or retransmit the 7 message, unless such intervening interactive computer service assists in 8 the transmission of an electronic mail message when it knows or 9 consciously avoids knowing that the person initiating the transmission 10 is engaged, or intends to engage, in any act or practice that violates 11 the provisions of this article. 12 (e) "Internet domain name" refers to a globally unique, hierarchical 13 reference to an internet host or service, assigned through centralized 14 internet naming authorities, comprising a series of character strings 15 separated by periods with the right-most string specifying the top of 16 the hierarchy. 17 (f) "Person or entity" means a person, corporation, partnership, 18 company, limited liability company, trust or association, or any agent 19 or employee thereof. 20 § 1802. Misleading electronic mail; prohibition. 21 (a) No person shall initiate the transmission, conspire with another 22 to initiate the transmission or assist the transmission of a commercial 23 electronic mail message from a computer located in this state or to an 24 electronic mail address that the sender knows or has reason to know is 25 held by a resident of this state that: 26 (1) Uses a third party's internet domain name without permission of 27 the third party, or otherwise misrepresents or obscures any information 28 in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path of a commer- 29 cial electronic mail message; or 30 (2) Contains false or misleading information in the subject line. 31 (b) For the purposes of this section, a person knows that the intended 32 recipient of a commercial electronic mail message is a resident of this 33 state if that information is available, upon request, from the regis- 34 trant of the internet domain name contained in the recipient's electron- 35 ic mail address. 36 § 1803. Violations and damages. 37 Damages recoverable by a recipient of a commercial electronic mail 38 message sent in violation of this article are one hundred dollars for 39 the first offense and one thousand dollars for each subsequent offense. 40 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 41 have become a law.
