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."

Comments

Spam is already illegal in EU

[MS]

There exist EU-directives for privacy protection (art 13 may 2002). Italy (other EU-countries should have similar laws enacted) has the law 675/96 (decreto di legge), for which the authority explicitly states, that the mere presence of an e-mail address on some webpage does NOT constitute permission to use it for sending unsolicited e-mails, whatever the purpose (even if not comercial!).

Spamming is illegal in Italy, and fined with up to 5000 Euro per incident!

The problem is USA: I cannot repeat it often enough: although about half of spam comes from open relays in Korea or China, most of it really originates in USA and is intended for USA citizens (which seem to be bankrupt, overweight an have a small penis). Other countries (like all of the EU!) already have laws which prohibit spamming - and we know they work.

Now, if only the USA would get through a similar law, the rest of the world would get rid of 90% of all spam!

BTW: I don't get hardly any spam from Europe (I get about 60 a day!), and if I get some, I am entitled to cash 250 Euros from the spammer... it works!

ms