Open your e-mail inbox and you might find advertising for everything from cheap textbooks to genital enhancers to free movie tickets — all known as "spam."

While spam is clogging millions of inboxes around the country, the government is starting to address the problem at the national level.

On Oct. 22, the U.S. Senate took action against the unsolicited messages, voting unanimously to outlaw some of the methods used by the spammers.

If passed in the House of Representatives, the new bill would require spammers to include a legitimate return address in the body of the message, prohibiting the use of false or deceptive headers. It would also require the Federal Trade Commission to create a national "do not e-mail" list, keeping unsolicited commercial messages away from Internet users.

Katherine Galasyn-Wright, president of the Roundtable marketing consultants firm in Champaign, said in an e-mail that this type of government regulation "tends to introduce barriers to doing business for responsible marketers — all in an attempt to curb the actions of a few who are not so responsible."

Even if legislation is passed, some University faculty and staff also doubt that federal action would change the situation.

"The biggest problem is that most of the spam comes from abroad. Those spammers are outside the jurisdictional reach of the United States," said Jay Kesan, an associated professor at the University College of Law and an expert in the regulation of cyberspace. "They are good at covering their digital tracks."

By requiring a legitimate return address, the government hopes to trace at least the national spammers and bring them to court, Kesan said.

"It's like saying, 'If you are willing to live in accordance with our law, we will let you spam. But if you are really spamming, we will get you,'" he said.

Even though the new regulation would be useful, it would not change the situation dramatically because national spammers can contract someone abroad to send e-mails, said Bob Foertsch, a Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) security coordinator.

Foertsch has noticed an increase in spamming, he said, which might be triggered by the national "do-not-call" list that was recently established to thwart telemarketers.

"Now because those people cannot call you during your dinner time, they tend to send e-mails," he said.

It is difficult to implement spam-blocking systems that would protect student accounts because of the University's policy that prohibits censoring e-mails. CITES can only block specific messages that contain viruses, Foertsch said.

While the future of the new Senate bill is unknown, many University students are accustomed to spammers and have their own methods to battle the unsolicited e-mails.

Kelly Kaufmann, a senior in business, said she receives about 15 spam messages a week and filters them in the Eudora Webmail.

"I don't think the spam should be regulated by the government," Kelly said. "I don't mind it. Unless, of course, it's pornographic and kids can see it."