CHAPTER 30  UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC

MAIL RESTRICTIONS

§2001.  Definitions

For the purposes of this Chapter, the following words shall have the meanings hereinafter ascribed to them:

(1)  "Commercial electronic mail advertisement" means any electronic mail message initiated for the primary purpose of advertising or promoting the lease, sale, rental, gift offer, or other disposition of any property, goods, services, or extension of credit.

(2)  "Domain name" means any alphanumeric designation that is registered with or assigned by any domain name registrar as part of an electronic mail address on the internet.

(3)  "Electronic mail" means an electronic message that is transmitted between two or more telecommunications devices, computers, or electronic devices capable of receiving electronic messages, whether or not the message is converted to hard copy format after receipt or is viewed upon transmission or stored for later retrieval.  "Electronic mail" includes electronic messages that are transmitted through a local, regional, or global computer network.

(4)  "Electronic mail address" means a destination, commonly expressed as a string of characters, to which electronic mail can be sent or delivered.  An "electronic mail address" may include a user name or mailbox and a reference to an internet domain.

(5)  "Electronic mail service provider" means any person, including an internet service provider, that is an intermediary in sending or receiving electronic mail or that provides to end users of the electronic mail service the ability to send or receive electronic mail.

(6)  "Functioning return electronic mail address" means an electronic mail address displayed in a commercial electronic mail advertisement that has the capacity to receive the number of reply messages that the sender of the commercial electronic mail advertisement should reasonably expect to be transmitted by the recipients for no less than thirty days after the sending of such advertisements.

(7)  "Header information" means the source, destination, and routing information attached at the beginning of an electronic mail message, including the originating domain name and originating electronic mail message.

(8)  "Initiate the transmission of a commercial electronic mail advertisement" means to transmit or cause to be transmitted a commercial electronic mail advertisement or assist in the transmission of a commercial electronic mail advertisement by providing or selecting electronic mail addresses to which the advertisement may be sent, but does not include the transmission by a telecommunications utility or an electronic mail service provider of the advertisement at the direction of another person through the network or system of a telecommunications utility or an electronic mail service provider.

(9)  "Internet" means the international computer network of both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks.

(10)  "Louisiana electronic mail address" means any of the following:

(a)  An electronic mail address furnished by an electronic mail service provider that sends bills for furnishing and maintaining that electronic mail address to a mailing address in this state.

(b)  An electronic mail address ordinarily accessed from a computer located in this state.

(c)  An electronic mail address furnished to a resident of this state.

(11)  "Obscene material"  means any tangible work or thing which the trier of fact determines:

(a)  The average person applying contemporary community standards would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

(b)  Depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, hard-core sexual conduct as specifically provided in R.S. 14:106(A)(2).

(c)  The work or thing, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

(12)  "Recipient" means the addressee of a commercial electronic mail advertisement.  If an addressee of a commercial electronic mail advertisement has one or more electronic mail addresses to which a commercial electronic mail advertisement is sent, the addressee shall be deemed to be a separate recipient for each address to which the advertisement is sent.

(13)  "Sender" means a person who initiates a commercial electronic mail advertisement.

(14)  "Unsolicited commercial electronic mail message" means a commercial electronic mail message sent without the consent of the recipient, by a person with whom the recipient does not have a preexisting or current business relationship.  The term "unsolicited commercial electronic message" does not include electronic mail messages where the sender:

(a)  Is an organization using electronic mail to communicate exclusively with its members.

(b)  Is an organization using electronic mail to communicate exclusively with its employees or contractors, or both.

(c)  Has the consent of the recipient.

Acts 2003, No. 1275, §1.