Spam Under Legislative Attack in Europe

Anonymous Coward writes: "CNN has an article in their Science and Technology section detailing how the European telecommunication ministers have agreed that unsolicited e-mail and wireless text messages should be prohibited under a new data protection law. They also are agreeing to allow leeway for law enforcement to access logs of e-mail and telephone traffic.

Comments

We hate spam, Saudis hate porn. Too bad.

[Marsh Jedi]

We spend hundreds of kilobytes yammering about the great firewall of China, in particular laughing at the futility of it--legislation that stops the flow of information seems to be something we protest when implemented, and deride when proposed.

This is of course, while we upgrade our procmail recipes and secretly wish for a legally-mandated X-this-is-spam header.

In the end isn't stemming the flow of unwanted spam essentially the same thing? Going with the datahaven theory, eventually all your spam will come from the countries that _do_ allow spamming. And then all your bulk-marketing companies will set up branch offices there.

It starts making draconian black hole lists start seeming like the only viable solution. Because legislation sure don't work.