UK To Hold Public Enquiry On Spam

feepcreature writes "Is something going to be done about email spam at last? In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group is to hold a public enquiry into spam. These politicians seem to understand the scale of the spam problem, and they are considering a new global level organization to deal with the Internet, as well as new laws, inter-government action and technical solutions. But will more international bodies help? Would laws work?"

Comments

Re:laws?

[Zeinfeld]

The problem is, if the House of Lords debate is any indication, the possiblity of any laws whatsoever being passed is fairly minimal.

Come again? Since when was a house of Lords debate an indication of anything other than the fact the members still have a pulse?

The statement from the minister is actually pretty specific, they will be legislating to implement the privacy directive, that has a direct application to the spam issue. They are also open to other legislation being proposed - if it makes sense.

Parliament is nothing like Congress. The legislation is almost entirely driven by the government, they choose the schedule for the bills, everything so if legislation is introduced the chances are that it will be passed unless there are major problems. None of the gridlock you get in the US.

The other difference is that legislation is frequently amended en-route in response to individual members concerns and in committee. Unlike in the US the ammendments cannot be completely unrelated bills, but any member can propose an ammendment, you don't have to be a committee chair to have a chance of getting it heard. The privacy directive is very likely to be ammended to include an anti-spam provision if one is proposed that makes sense.

The result is that the system works very differently. It is not unusual for a bill to be followed by another shortly after with corrections.

The point is that it should not be easy to get legislation through.