CastleCops® - UK Lawmakers Call for International Anti-Spam Laws

UK Lawmakers Call for International Anti-Spam Laws
By Bernhard Warner,
European Internet Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - A trio of British lawmakers urged their counterparts in the United States and Australia on Monday to adopt tough anti-spam laws modeled after recent European legislation to stop the global flow of bulk e-mail.

Spam, the unceasing torrent of get-rich-quick and anatomy-enchancing e-mail messages, has grown into a political hot-button issue across the globe. The campaign to eradicate junk messages have attracted a united front of politicians, business officials and cyber rights advocates.

The All Party Internet Group (APIG), a contingent of British parliamentarians, released a report on Monday saying anti-spam legislation should be harmonized across the globe to criminalize the cross-border activity.

It is essential that co-ordinated global action be taken against spam, said UK MP Derek Wyatt, chairman of the APIG. The report, which gathered input from scores of companies, individuals and trade groups, is the result of a year-long probe into the economic toll of spam in the U.K.

With spam accounting for roughly half of all e-mails sent, a crackdown has taken on a new sense of urgency. The fear is that, left unchecked, spam messages will overwhelm corporate computer servers and personal in-boxes.

But few agree on how best to tackle the problem.

European Union legislation requires all e-mail senders, whether legitimate marketers or spammers, to get the prior consent of the recipient.

This so-called opt-in route broadly defines spam as any e-mail that arrives without a recipient's permission, which European politicians and business officials call an effective restraint.

But current U.S. proposals carry a more advertiser-friendly opt-out mechanism, which has triggered mounting criticism from Europe. Next week, a team of UK politicians will travel to Washington D.C. to take their message to U.S. lawmakers.

Anti-spam proposals in Australia, one of the handful of countries working on such a law, would carry opt-in specifications.

Last month, the United Kingdom and Italy were the first EU member states to pass anti-spam laws. But industry observers have already questioned the effectiveness of such laws, noting that the biggest offenders are based in the United States, Asia and the Caribbean.

What happens when you have spammers coming from the Cayman Islands? Who are you going to sue? They don't have any laws, said Alyn Hockey, product director for ClearSwift, a UK-based firm that specializes in anti-spam software for corporations.

The UK law in particular has drawn criticism for the light penalties it would impose on spammers and the fact that it doesn't offer protection to corporate e-mail recipients.

In Britain, convicted junk mail peddlers face a 5,000 pound ($8,314) fine if found guilty in a magistrates court. The fine from a jury trial would be unlimited.

The report suggested Britain's Department of Trade and Industry extend the anti-spam law, which goes into effect in December, to corporate victims and ensure that the enforcement body, the Information Commissioner, has the power to convict suspects.
Reuters


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