A bill to strengthen California's anti-spam law is working its way through the state Legislature and could go into effect as early as next year, SFGate reported.

According to published reports, the legislation would enable private citizens to sue email marketers for up to $1 million for using false or deceptive subject lines or misleading ad copy in the body of email messages. Current California laws allow consumers to sue spammers, but only for deception in the headers and not the body or subject lines.

Groups representing marketers are hoping to persuade the bill's authors to rewrite it, claiming that as it currently reads, it could impose liability for accidental errors.

California Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who is sponsoring the act, is welcoming the participation from web companies and has told reporters that the negotiations should produce a fleshed-out version of the bill by next month.

The current 30-page document details activities considered to be deceptive, such as using misspelled words to evade spam filters. California's current law does not define what is deceptive or false.