At the last minute, the U.S. federal government pre-empted stronger state legislation by passing the CAN-SPAM Act. It may not put a dent in spam, but it will place new requirements on every email message sent by companies, even those from individual employees. That's right -- it's not just about bulk email.

Email guru Steve Webster of iPost explains your obligations under this new law, effective January 1, 2004, and your options available for compliance. (Hint: You may need to run all your company's outbound email through a company-wide opt-out filter.)

The new act creates significant liabilities for companies, but will it stop spam? Steve says no. Unlike junk faxes, he explains why legislation isn't the complete answer for unsolicited email. Although laws like CAN-SPAM solve part of the problem, the ultimate solution, he says, will require a change to the underlying email protocols, including broad adoption of digital-authentication technologies.

"Ten years from now, we can't have spam because e-mail will wither and die," Steve says. Listen in to find out what individuals and companies can and should do, and the roles of ISPs in eliminating spam and finding and prosecuting those who send it.