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Canada Task Force Calls For Anti-Spam Law
Canrights writes "Canada's National Task Force on Spam released its final
report today. Despite prior
spam actions on privacy grounds in Canada, the task force is
calling for a tough new anti-spam law including penalties for failure
to obtain appropriate opt-in consents before sending commercial email
as well as private right of action to encourage Canadian lawsuits
against spammers. Professor
Michael Geist, who headed up the legal aspects of the task force,
provides a good
summary of the recommendations."
Of course this has never been said on /. yet. mod me redundant please but hopefully eventually joe user will catch on.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
You know they'll always get their ham ... byproduct ... um, email.
...
About time an efficient and methodical group was let loose upon the denizens of the underworld who send out spam. Their chief weapons are Politeness, Sincerity, and a Stringent Application of Canadian Law to preserve a spam-free environment
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Or are there some bulk mailers for whom life in a forced labor camp on water and SPAM would do? (I know that latter thought risks being modded down for undue leniency...;-))
as opposed to the totally unworkable opt-out-unless-you're-rich-and-powerful US approach to spam.
Cool!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Canada is currently a relatively non-litigious society. It would be nice if it would stay that way. The use of litigation to effect change in a society or business community seems rather suspect: it puts in place a very odd set of incentives. Lawyers get more money the more problems there are, and individuals must fear the lack of liability insurance. Lawyers and insurance companies have a lot to gain from encouraging a litigious society while individual people have nothing to gain (that I can see).
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
The U.S. FTC "do-not-call" list worked wonders for phone spam for our household. We used to get at least 40 phone spams per month and now get less about 3 per month. Perhaps it could be employed to reduce the volume of spam, too.
To prevent contributing to spammers' DB of addresses, the list could be handled on a query-only basis. It's not fool proof, but any spammer caught with an HD full of "do-not-email" names would be in for a world of hurt.
I'm sure this proposal will get the obligatory "why this won't work" form letter, but then what solution to spam doesn't have a a long list of problems.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
when most spam is coming from abroad, this law helps how?
Pass a law for nothing!
Constipated? Pass a Law against it!
Replace common sense with government BS? PASS A LAW!
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
...won't this merely stop spam coming directly from Canadian sources (excluding infected computers) and force them to either move to a country, or relay their spam through another country, with lax or non-existent rules regarding spam?
Hope be with ye,
Cyan
I'm for the comeback of the death penalty ;-)
You can't take the sky from me...
Pass a law making it legal to DoS attack any IP found to be the originating source of spam greater than a given threshold and the findinds verified independently by two peer spam-hunting organizations. Post said IP on confirmation and let the script kiddies have at them.
Spammers need to be hounded off the net. No ifs, ands, or butts. They need to go and should be subject to direct retribution equivalent to their own actions which amount in the aggregate to a DDoS on the mail systems across the Internet. How many admins have had servers collapse under the load, how many users have had connections die during downloading of thousands of spams and take forever to get to their real mail, etc.?
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Note the distinction between a proposal from an activist and a law that was actually passed. You may want to hang on a bit before moving to Saskatoon...
... about the same as Seattle and I went to college there.
It's a summary of the law proposed by a crown task force. That's how they make laws up in Canada.
Besides, I'd move to Vancouver, what with spring being 10 days earlier than it was 10 years ago
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It's pretty much common knowledge that Florida is the source of a hell of a lot of spam. Our country is not the problem.
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Taxes.
Amend the Income Tax Act to tax revenues from spam in the insane range.
Canada has incredible legislative talent at finding new taxes to impose on people, and it's about time they start using this power for the Forces of Good.
Now if that happens and some spammer evades his taxes, it's off to a Federal PMITA prison.
And no conjugal visits.
I live in Belgium and my mailserver where I recieve my mail is in the US. How can I file a complaint to a spammer in the Florida, or anywhere in the US or anywhere in any country?
When I do it here, they say they are unable to do anything, because the crime was not commited in Belgium. The efficientcy of abuse mailadresses has been shown by the amount of spam we get.
I am afraid that to get someting really done, we need much much much more spam. Spam in the amounts that it stops all internet traffic. Hopefully THEN either governements take actions or people will tell their governements to take action.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
We just had a provincial election here in British Columbia yesterday. During the campaign, my email was bombarded by spam, from all the parties fielding candidates. I received an average of fifteen political emails per day, on each of my email accounts. Interestingly, one of these accounts was created for, and only known to, the Ministry of Human Resources, a part of the government, and it received just as much spam as the others. If the government is directly sending, or is complicit in the sending of unsolicited email, what makes you think a law against it will be followed or enforced?
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Also, if the fourth list in the chain knows the details of my signup to the first list, that information is useless because almost everyone now has that information.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
was going to be CAN-SPAM-ADA.
Say it over and over..
... canspamada canspamada canspamada..
:)
to the tune of the the monty python spam song.
sounds like my mail server trying to deal with all the bloody spam.. spam spam spam...
canspamada
sorry
yes it has been a slow week
Move along... there is no sig here.
But if it's because the car's brakes are unable to hold it if there is a very slight slope, I think you would ahve a good case against the motor manufacturer, and if all their cars were like that, you could expect a big federal case. I don't see Dell or MS in court.
Putting a not road worthy vehicle on an Interstate is a punishable crime. So is selling unroadworthy vehicles, and misrepresenting safety aspects of vehicles. If you were sold a car with locks that didn't lock, I think you would have federal support is sueing the auto manufacturer. Once again, MS is not in court. And where they are, they bribe their way out.
Can you say 'Cayonero'? I knew you could!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
I am all for this as long as it does not affect my communications with Mr. Rufus Mukhenze of the Nigerian Bank of Commerce.
Adventure City Tours
well, if i were a spammer, i'd be trying to make a living my clogging up the mailboxes of millions of people with useless garbage that it's obvious they don't want. If spam was something worth making a living on, they wouldnt have big companies that do nothing but come up with software to fight it. It's awful and any spammers out there deserve to have laws made against their actions. At the very LEAST, governments should enact a national no-spam email list. People hate spam and no crying from any lame spammer is going to make ANYONE feel sorry for them. Most people cheer when they hear some has been prosecuted for violating the (somewhat overrated) can-spam law....
The proposal is like most of the US state anti-spam acts I've analysed (if the posted info was accurate.)
It doesn't narrowly target spam, but outlaws a wide swath of legitimate email.
Misleading headers: Look at the last 10 emails you sent. Could some enemy construe any of them as "misleading"?
Look at the way the proposal targets those whose products are promoted by spam, even if they had nothing to do with sending or encouraging the spam.
Say you don't like bill gates. Send spam advertizing his product, then report him.
The proposal, if enacted in the US, would violate the first amendment and due process.
I don't know enough about Canadian common law, charter, etc, to be able to comment.
But it's a bad proposal in its current form, or it's been ineptly described in the posted articles.
Baby with the bathwater, cure worse than the disease.