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European Union Says No To Spam

Posted by timothy on from the will-take-effect-in-20-years dept.

Peter Dyck writes: "CNN reports that the Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) has agreed on Thursday to pass a new law banning the use of unsolicited e-mail. The resolution also bans the so-called inertia marketing for the promotion of financial services. This means that within the 15 EU member-states companies cannot resort anymore to direct marketing to sell their wares. Marketing is still possible, but the consumers must opt-in for it first." However, this is just one bend in a long and bureaucratic road.

7 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Rock the fsck on! by Halo- · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude, pack my stuff, I'm moving.... now I just need to buy a bunch of those power convertors. Damn metric electricity!

  2. how dare they say no to spam! by motherfuckin_spork · · Score: 0, Funny
    all the effort put into marketing spam. all the effort put into making spam taste better and better, and then these darned Europeans come along and say: "No, we don't wnat your stinking spam"... Hormel should sue!

    --
    Nope, not me, I must be someone else...
  3. Finally, but the battle continues... by the_other_one · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now that the evils of spiced ham are under control. Action can be taken against corned beef. Millions of kernels die every year in the making of this vile product

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    134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
  4. Why the icon change for Spam? by Darth+RadaR · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is Hormel giving Cmdr Taco grief? Enquiring minds want to know.

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    /*drunk.. fix later*/
  5. Re:Attention European entrepeneurs! by Pogue+Mahone · · Score: 3, Funny
    If you use my patented mail filter all spam will be a thing of the past. The filter installs itself as a device in your Unix or Linux /dev directory. The filter is called mailfilter and you just direct all incoming mail to this device to get rid of spam. Simply type this command to install the device:
    cd /dev; ln -s null mailfilter

    ;-) Now send me the cash.

    --
    Every bloody emperor has his hand up history's skirt [Peter Hammill/VdGG]
  6. Only opt-in lists? by Guppy06 · · Score: 3, Funny

    But your honor! The plaintiff's e-mail address was subscribed to our "mailing list" already. If he didn't want the e-mail, he shouldn't have subscribed to begin with.

    What? He didn't subscribe? Then it must have been some sort of practical joke by his friends (we get those ALL the time). He should really be more careful about who he calls "friend"...

  7. Time for an European spamming conference? by magi · · Score: 4, Funny

    European spamming laws would not be very useful as such, as most world-wide spammers are Americans. But, I have a plan.

    We could arrange a "conference for spamming professionals" in Europe and call spammers from all over the world. When they arrive at the conference location, we would arrest them.

    I doubt Americans could complain about the immorality of the procedure...

    A cool idea, not?