Slashdot Mirror
UK And EU May Make Unsolicited Email Illegal
An anonymous reader writes "According to this BBC article the UK and the EU are planning to making unsolicited email simply illegal. This doesn't do anything for prevention practically, but it does legally pave the way for measures that do. Lord Sainsbury of Turville admits it will do nothing to stop spam from outside the EU."
Or at least is targeted at the US - most of the offers I get every day are for cheap dental care, cheap medical care, loans in USD and fake diplomas from US Universities (and of course porn).
;)
This would indicate that most is from the US, so obviously this new law means F**k all, although I guess we could go for extradition or arrest them if they come to Europe on holiday
...it can't (and won't) be stopped. It probably WILL be taxed, however. When these governments realize how much they could be raking in if there was a postage-like tax on spam messages, they won't be able to resist creating a broad email tax. Think, for instance, how much money postal services must be making off junk mail.
Currently I put everything from china into my SPAM-folder and by golly, I'll just blacklist every country that doesn't have anti-SPAM laws.
The interesting thing is this: let's say that the U.S. and EU do both ban spam, and all the spam is coming from outside the U.S. and EU. A *lot* of people will react the same way you do.
That is to say, we'll suddenly see a lot more careless e-mail blocks being placed on large swaths of entire countries, some by individuals, and most likely often by ISPs. We already see a LOT of huge e-mail blocks being done by ISPs, especially AOL, without much concern for collateral damage; it isn't inconcievable that a number of random ISPs might just look at their statistics and shortsightedly go, hmm, 90% of our spam comes from (for example) Indonesia, who is going to be talking to people in Indonesia anyway, i'll just block the whole country (or maybe just most of their IP space).
Once this starts happening, internet users and businesses in (for example) Indonesia are suddenly going to start discovering that they are having trouble communicating with the U.S., and this is because of spammers in their country. I find it likely that if this happens, their response will be to complain to their government to do something about the spammers that are making the americans block them... until one day, spam is illegal in indonesia as well, and shortsighted ISPs in indonesia are going, hey, all my spam's coming from Myanmar, why don't i just block e-mail from there..
So if the US or EU ever adopted real antispam laws, it could start a big domino effect that would cause a lot of other countries to adopt antispam laws as well.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
IANAL, in fact I didn't even read the article (and proud of it too), but spam is unsolicited commercial email. To keep it simple if your email is...
... then it is spam. If you're just mass mailing rants and raves about non-commercial stuff, it's just chain e-mails (to me at least, not that I love them any more than spam).
1) Sent in bulk to people who did not specifically ask to be contacted via email.
2) Is selling some form of product or service.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
Yeah, because as a Scot I have no culture of my own within the UK. (And like the majority of Scots, I'm a unionist, BTW.) The argument that closer EU integration will destroy national cultures is completely bogus and introspective. It's also a viewpoint most vehemently held by xenophobic right-wing little Engerlanders.
The current organisation of the EU may be seriously flawed, but that doesn't make the concept bad.
Mmmmm, objectivity...
NO `brit' (btw i find that term offensive) wants anything to do with the EU,
Speak for yourself.
The EU is banning all gameshows which give out over 70,000, i.e Who wants to be a Millionnaire is going to have to change or be banned, THATS HOW stooopid the Europeans are.
As a Brit who regularly travels and does business in other European countries, I find it really sad how a lot of Brits do not have an objective idea about Europe and the EU because they do not access to unbiased information about it. There is a concerted effort by a significant part of the UK press to rubbish the EU, and people such as yourself are easily influenced by them. Stories like the one you quote (and on the front page of The Times two days ago "EU would scap NHS if UK joins the Euro") only appear in the UK. And do you know why? Because they are just rubbish, made up, to influence people like yourself. Sad but true.
Britain is Britain, the political alliance of England, Scotland and Wales, we are our own union, we don't want European trash, and we're not in Europe...
It is funny very anti-European people such as yourself like to make this type of comment with regards to Europe, but seem completely blind to the fact that the UK has given away much of it's independance to the USA over the last half a century or so. The sad fact is that the USA has the UK in an economic vice. You should be more concerned that your Prime Minister has to be a poodle for the USA than any supposed threat to your soverignty from Europe.