Legal Question in Technology Law in Washington

WA state code RCW 19.190 UCE

WA has a code RCW 19.190 regarding the sending of UCE (unsolicited commercial email) to WA state residents. In the code, it states that ''a sender has reason to know an intended recipient is a WA state resident if the information is available for release from the registrar of the domain name in the email address.'' i.e. [email protected]. Hotmail is the registrar of all Hotmail email addresses.

If I submit a request for state of residency verification to the Hotmail administrative staff to verify whether a specific email address belongs to a WA state resident, and Hotmail refuses to release such information, I assume that I have fulfilled the obligation stated in RCW 19.190 as MSN Hotmail is the ''registrar'' of the domain name in the hotmail email address. Am I correct?

Thank you for any assistance you can provide.


Asked on 4/25/02, 10:06 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Timothy J. Walton Internet Attorney

Re: WA state code RCW 19.190 UCE

No. You must check the official registry of addresses maintained at:

http://registry.waisp.org

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Answered on 4/26/02, 12:26 am
Ken Koenen Koenen & Tokunaga, P.C.

Re: WA state code RCW 19.190 UCE

An email address is not a domain name.

A domaine name is www.domainname.com, or something along that line.

I get these spam email all the time. Click on the website they are advertising, and go to the "Contact Us" button ... they almost always have one.

Send them an email letting them know that they are violating state and federal laws, and that you will have an attorney file a class action suit against them if they do not remove your name from their list.

If they don't have a "Contact Us" link, go to the following address:

http://inexpensivedomains.com/whois.html

and type in the domain name. That will give you the registration information.

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Answered on 4/26/02, 1:08 am


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