If you are going to be in DC next week, you should visit E-Gov 2003. The conference itself is very expensive, but the expo, exhibitions, and a couple sesssions are free (for government employees, cheap otherwise).
Today begins a 3 day Federal Trade Commission Spam Forum "to address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal, and financial issues associated with it. "
The Forum is open to the public, so if you are in the DC area, maybe you would like to stop by and let me know whats going on? Otherwise, they've already put up some of the materials being presented by the panelists. You can also visit the official FTC Spam site.
Considering how techno-illiterate most legislators are, spam has gotten to be a huge issue - I'm aware of at least two anti-spam bills bouncing around congress and that shouldn't be a surprise. Considering that 40% of all email sent is spam and 2/3 of all spam contains false info, I can't imagine anyone besides a few Nigerian Con-Men could be pro-spam. Being an anti-spam legislator is a poltical slam dunk and a way to gain some quick and easy public relations cache.
But, as much as I detest spam, and wish I received less of it (between 3 different emails, I probably receive more than 100 pieces of spam a day), I'm not sure how I feel about anti-spam laws. I have this nagging feeling about them, and I don't quite know enough about the law to explain why.