By DAN MITCHELL
IN the hierarchy of annoying advertisers, the p*rn spammers and the pump-and-dump stock promoters dwell at the bottom. Not far above them are junk faxers, who spew unsolicited advertisements to your fax machine, using your phone line, your ink and your paper in the process.
Most junk faxes have been illegal since 1991. Since then, a federal law and Federal Communications Commission regulations have kept most machines free of unsolicited ads. But that may be changing. Why? "Because Congress just pumped new life into the junk fax industry," according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (epic.org), which issued a communication on the subject this week.
This summer, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Junk Fax Prevention Act. The "Orwellian-named" law removes one of the few protections against fax abuse, writes Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director for the center's West Coast office in San Francisco. In a loophole similar to one in the Can-Spam Act, which has done essentially nothing to stem the tide of unsolicited commercial e-mail, businesses are allowed to junk-fax anyone with whom they have an "established business relationship."