Slashdot Mirror
French Legislators Vote to Ban Spam
mlawmlaw writes "The Herald is reporting that France's National Assembly has voted 'in favor of banning unsolicited e-mail sales messages.' This is an admendment to a law to 'increase confidence in the digital economy.' This would ban 'direct marketing, notably advertising, via electronic messages' to individuals who had not given consent. The article is light on details, but it's nice to see France taking a step to reduce spam."
The article is light on details, but it's nice to see France taking a step to reduce spam.
Yeah, that's just what we need -- governments passing laws to outlaw things that the majority of the population doesn't like. I wonder other unpopular things they're looking at banning. At least Ashcroft hasn't labeled spammers as enemy combatants engaged in cyberterrorism and shipped them all off to Guantonomo Bay without a trial -- yet.
Surely there must be a way to reduce spam without getting governments involved.
GMD
watch this
Am I the only one that's thinking the french will fold once the spammers declare war on them? :)
It's obvious they're anti-spam because it's an American invention. In fact, I think George Bush invented it (shortly after Gore invented the internet).
I am completely in agreement with the idea of outlawing spam and have long wished for such a law in the US. Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the more I realize, there's just no way to enforce such a law.
First, in order to enforce such a law you would have to create some sort of governmental agency where you would send your spam complaints and they would go after the spammers. This, of course, results in the creation of another bloated government bureaucracy fincanced by your tax dollars. This raises a number of issues -- not the least of which is "how much benefit will you really get in return for the millions of dolars that will be spent".
The second problem, and the most frustrating, is one that I have run into in my own attempts at fighting spam. When I trace the IP addresses of the spam which arrives in my inbox daily, I find that more and more are originating from foreign countries, including Korea, China, Spain and Brazil.
So, no matter how tough your anti-spam law may be, it's worthless when spammers cant take advantage of open relays in foreign countries.
Surely there must be a way to reduce spam without getting governments involved.
It's called vigilanteism. Let's all gang up on the bastards and give them a little taste of community justice. 'Cause if it isn't against the law, what other incentive do they have to stop.
I guess the French government is not owned by the corporations? Man, that is refreshing. Where did they come up with that one. Shit, I'll drop my rifle and run any day for that.
Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
but seriously, why would france want to attack its best oil supplier? they aren't chickens, they're smart business men who just happen to deal with tryannical dictators.
The problem with legislation like this is that most people opt-in on a specific site, but that list gets sold. You don't know what the buyers are using that information for so consent was given, but not necessarily to the people sending. US laws have a very similar problem.
actually french fries weren't made by the french in france, but rather Belgium (source).
even then though, the evidence is sketchy. In reality the reason they are called French fries is because the way of cutting the potatoes is called "to french". Cutting a potatoe in long, slender slices is to french the potatoe. (Not to be confused with a different more modern "to french").
Just some interesting facts.
~ kjrose
In Europe, we have data protection law (google for Data Protection Act to see Britain's implementation, but it's an EU thing, so the other European countries have very similar laws with the same purpose).
Companies that deal with "personally identifiable information" have to be registered with a central authority (the Data Protection Registrar, a government office), and have to give a reason why they want to keep the information. If a company passes on the information, or even just uses it for something other than its original purpose, they're already breaking the law, so no new law is necessary.
(The registration thing might be different outside Britain, but the principle is probably the same in France)
You can always count on the French to take the idealistic option.
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Remember when everyone was giving VP Dan a hard time about misspelling tomato? It turns out that it is a fairly common stupid mistake.
--
Annotateit at Annotateit.com
First, let me state that I hate spam as much as anyone else, and would very much like to see it disappear. But let me play devil's adovcate for a second. One thought has occured to me:
How is spam different than bulk mail? You still have to look at it, still have to throw it in the trash, and still don't read the messages inside. And what are the complaints against spam? "It wastes server space. It wastes bandwidth." Oh, now those are certainly precious, non-renable resources. Not like the millions of trees that are cut down daily for bulk mail. (Yes, I'm ignoring the cost difference, but the point is still the same)
Just wondering.... Btw, is there any reason we (or the French) can't outlaw any type of unsolicited (e)mail?
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
"It wasn't selling anything, it was offering a free tour!"
useless law.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
yeah, but it has strings attached such as making ISP responsible for policing user web sites (hell, think about censorship coming). more info here (in French, but you can have a good laugh using google translation services ;-) )
Let's ban drugs, that'll make them disappear forever.
Government just never learns from its past, does it ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com