Law and order
Spamming set to become illegal in the Netherlands and other legislative news...
Spamming is about to become illegal in The Netherlands, after the upper house of the Dutch parliament
approved changes to telecoms legislation late last month. However, the legislation - which is likely to
become law in May or June - only covers spam sent to individual users; spam sent to businesses is
unaffected.
Under the new law unsolicited commercial email may not lawfully be sent to consumers unless
they have opted in to receive messages. The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst,
has answered critics concerned about the lack of protection afforded to businesses, by promising to
undertake 'initiatives' to ensure that anti-spam protection is extended to the business community.
In other legislative news, the Federal Spam Act 2003 took effect in Australia on 11 April. Companies found
to be in breach of the legislation will be fined up to AU$220,000
per day or AU$1.1 million for repeat offences. The Australian Computer Society has released a five-step
guide for businesses to make sure they are compliant with the
new legislation.
In Maryland, USA, an anti-spam bill has been approved that calls for stiff financial penalties and up to
10 years imprisonment for spammers. If the bill is signed into law, spammers sending more than 10
unsolicited commercial emails per day to users in Maryland could face a $10,000 fine or up to five years
imprisonment, while repeat offenders could be looking at a 10-year sentence and a $25,000 fine. Currently,
the anti-spam law in Virginia is considered to be the toughest (in the US) on spammers, but Virginian
spammers can send up to 10,000 messages before facing charges.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, the counsel representing a man charged with spam offences has requested
that the attorney general's office be disqualified from prosecuting the case because the attorney general
received campaign funds from AOL - the plaintiff. Furthermore, the defendant's legal advisor has called
for
the case to be dismissed since, he argues, the Virginian
anti-spam law violates the federal Commerce Clause and the First Amendment. The trial date is set for September.
5 June 2004
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