5 years ago: Europeans petition parliament for end to spam

20.04.1999: Graham Watson MEP today launched an attack on email spammers in the European Parliament when he presented the Legal Affairs Committee with a petition calling for an end to junk email.

The petition - signed by 24,000 European internet users - calls for an end to unsolicited email, which Watson described as an invasion of privacy and a huge waste of time and money. Watson said the petition is an example of online democracy in action.

Simon Davies, director of lobby group Privacy International, welcomed the move and added that he hopes Watson will take a hard line: "The legislation should move toward criminal sanctions for companies responsible for spamming."

20.04.2004: Sadly, the much hoped-for end to spam simply hasn't materialised, despite a raft of well-meaning but ultimately impotent government measures, including the FTC's recent demand that all pornographic spam be labelled as sexually explicit.

Spam, however, has continued to grow apace. The blood pressure-raising inbox annoyance rose to account for 63 per cent of all email traffic in March, according to anti-spam firm Brightmail.