Switzerland Isn't Neutral Toward Spam

Dhericean writes "Switzerland (with the assistance of Microsoft) is preparing a harsh new anti-spam law which would see not just the sender of the spam but those who benefit from it targeted. Does this mean we're going to see viruses sending lots of Microsoft and SCO messages to the .ch TLD?"

Comments

I actually live in Switzerland...

[fuzzybunny]

Switzerland has some fairly colorful history regarding technology-related laws and reaction to things like spam. For example, for a long time, some UK mobile providers blocked all SMS messages from Swiss numbers, because there were no laws in place prohibiting SMS spamming. Hence, people set up SMS relays all over the place here.

Also, there are quite a few examples where federal or canton (state) level judges ordered ISPs to block websites for various types of content (including one example of "questionable" political messages--look at the SwiNOG archives for details.)

There's a fairly good understanding of technolgy at a government level, but very often not of the consequences. You have to understand that the Swiss mentality (I'm half Swiss so I get to pontificate on this) is largely based on the idea that people are basically decent and law abiding and that processes have to be followed at all costs. This makes the tax people where I live be really nice and proper, but on the other hand, we've had incidents where we were told not to investigate Nigerian phishers too closely, because we'd make ourselves liable for incitement to commit fraud.

Regarding the army, it's a joke. It's an underfunded mass force; they can't find enough for the poor bastards to do, so they set them on guard duty for festivals and to building grandstands at parades, whatnot. Most young people get in contact with at least soft drugs during their basic training, and it's very widely seen as a complete waste of time (n.b. I didn't go, I got a psychiatrist to certify me for a section 8.)

And, deviating from the tech-topics a bit, we've been very wussy and inconsistent in dealing with foreign countries in general and with the E.U. in particular. The Swiss (and this is a sweeping overgeneralization) don't have the killer competitive instinct that your average German, Brit or American displays in dealing with a lot of issues. It's a really beautiful, pleasant, clean, functional and well-run place to live, and that sort of spoils you over time.