In its report to Congress on the effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM Act, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the law is indispensable in the war on spam but subsequent anti-spam measures must be technological, writes ClickZ. FTC officials summarized the report's findings during a press conference, during which they also discussed enforcement initiatives undertaken together with Canada and those with some southern states. However, only 20 or so criminal prosecutions have resulted from the enforcement of the Act's provisions thus far.

Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, nevertheless said the law was a success because it sets a standard for email best practices and guides ISPs and others who wish to take on spammers.

However, CNET notes that some critics of the Act, which requires an opt-out approach rather and opt-in standard, have said it may have increased junk email because Congress overruled tougher state laws would have required opting in to commercial mailing lists.

The FTC report recommends the adoption of domain-level authentication technologies to prevent anonymous spamming, and passage of the US SAFE WEB Act ("Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2005"), which the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation approved and submitted the bill to the full Senate last week.