By Dan Ilett, 26 October 2004 09:05
NEWS
A UK-based anti-spam organisation is to advise legal officials at the European Commission on new legislation to block junk email.
Spamhaus, which already advises the UK and several other governments on anti-spam policies, was consulted by the EC to help improve its laws on banning spam. Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, said on Monday he wants to see Europe adopt a similar version of the Australian anti-spam law.
"The [Australian] prime minister said he was going to come down on spammers like a ton of bricks," said Linford. "We are recommending that Europe uses the Australian law as a template. That's the best one so far. It's working because it penalises spammers."
Under the Australian Anti-Spam Act 2003, spammers can be fined up to AUS $1.1m (£446,000) per day for sending spam. Linford, who advised Australia on its law, said that Spamhaus saw a direct effect on spam in the country after the law was implemented.
"The moment they brought it in, we noticed a decline in spam from Australia," said Linford. "The notorious Australian spammers have disappeared and the most famous even relocated to Indonesia. A couple of months later our stats gave us the feeling that spam had disappeared. The Australian Communications Authority was very pleased."
Linford added that the Australian government was also pushing other countries to use its law as a template. But the Department of Trade and Industry had frowned on the idea of fining spammers, he said. "There was a reluctance to implement any penalty. The DTI is still of the opinion that British industry wants spam."
Britain's implementation of the EU Privacy and Electronics Communication Directive allows spammers to send unsolicited junk email to businesses. Those who break the law by spamming consumers could face a £5,000 fine, but the Information Commissioner -- whose office must enforce the law -- is said to have insufficient powers.
Back in June, Linford warned that the UK's anti-spam legislation was actually encouraging junk emails to move into Britain. He also revealed that Spamhaus had received threats of legal action from some of these spammers.
Dan Ilett writes for ZDNet UK.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Having recently moved from Australia to the UK, I can assure you that the spam laws did little to stem the flow of spam in the country, but simply created heavy burdens on legitimate marketers anytime they wished to send a promotional message via email. In fact, the Australian law considers that any business email with a marketing message (including those in email footers) are open for intepretation under the spam act.
2. James Button
Is it illegal to forward spam to the DTI asking them to deal with it?
A simple idea but perhaps it would encourage the government to do something aout the copious ammounts of pharmaseutical products, mortgages and rolex watches I can get - just for passing over my bank details, and a small amount of sterling to the foriegn exchange support facility?
3. anonymous
I just don't think that the Government or the DTI have a clue on this issue. Maybe someone else will take the initative?
I had an employee get one in this morning with a very sexual and disturbing subject matter and it needs to be stopped...its as simple as that.
4. Simon
"There was a reluctance to implement any penalty. The DTI is still of the opinion that British industry wants spam."
Well if that is the approach from our government, then we never will get rid of spam. If someone persistently stands on the street making a racket they get an Anti Social Behaviour Order with some fairly hefty penalties if they ignore it - it seems that people doing the same thing on email just get a mild telling off. Ooh, that'll scare them !
5. anonymous
"The DTI is still of the opinion that British industry wants spam."
What is this all about ?
We should get rid of these guys.
6. Nick Cole
The DTI might welcome spam but nobody else does. They need to get a life and recognise the detrimental effect. Of course if someone could advise us of a working DTI email address we could all forward it on for their attention and statistical analysis. Obviously in their ivory towers they are unaware of its impact.
Curtailing the advertisers right to free speech entails reinforcing recipients rights not to receive things they do not want and have to pay to receive. And, yes we all know it can be deleted but that means we have to read it before deciding to do so. Not to mention that unwanted sexual inducements, drugs, fake watches and so on also get to be seen by children.
7. Peter Goddard
But we all know that the big problem doesn't come from within Europe or from Australia: 99% of all spam, be it porn, loan, medical "enhancement", or fake diplomas come from North America. We are on a no winner whilst the Yanks (everything "commercial" goes) refuse to clean up their act!
8. Peter Goddard
But we all know that the big problem doesn't come from within Europe or from Australia: 99% of all spam, be it porn, loan, medical "enhancement", or fake diplomas come from North America. We are on a no winner whilst the Yanks (everything "commercial" goes) refuse to clean up their act!
9. anonymous
Isn't the Aussie PM the guy who spammed everone a while back during his election campaign and also out sourced to a foriegn country his latest spam hit using phone messages about 6-8 weeks ago
Dumb example if you ask me - just another example of politicians giving the old "Do what i say dont do what i do"
He never got penalised either so thats another peice of toothless uselesss legislation