Differences between version 3 and predecessor to the previous major change of LegislatingAgainstSpam.
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| Newer page: | version 3 | Last edited on Thursday, May 27, 2004 11:12:04 pm | by zcat(1) | Revert |
| Older page: | version 2 | Last edited on Thursday, May 27, 2004 9:58:22 pm | by PerryLorier | Revert |
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! http://www.med.govt.nz/pbt/infotech/spam/discussion/discussion-02.html
1. Do you consider spam to be an important issue? Has it significantly affected you in any way?
PerryLorier: Yes, it has reduced the utility of email, which is one of my primary means of communication. Also spammers have started sending penis enlargement spams from a domain I help administer which is used by a biopharmaceticals company that sell amongst other things, growth hormones. The spammers are not affiliated in any way with the real owners of the domain, and are causing considerable loss of good will.
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+zcat(1): My kids (7 and 9) would like to be able to exchange email with their friends at school, email stuff to kids TV, enter competitions, etc. I've set them up their own email addresses, but I see today they're starting to get viruses and I have no doubt that spam (much of it highly pornographic) will soon follow. Now I have to discreetly pre-screen their mail.
2. Do you think legislation has a role to play alongside other complementary measures?
PerryLorier: Yes. There are several promising technological solutions on the horizon such as [SPF], [CallerID], [Penny Black|http://research.microsoft.com/research/sv/PennyBlack/], however even if these are effective at wiping out email spam, there is still other types of spam, such as IM spam.
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6. Do the messages caught by the legislation have to be sent/conveyed to many recipients, and if so, how many?
PerryLorier: I believe that yes, part of what makes spam what it is is the fact that it is sent in bulk. I'd suggest that bulk email is email where you are sending on average more than 1 email every 10 seconds over any one hour period.
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+zcat(1): BULK and UNSOLICITED should be the only criteria, commercial makes no difference whatsoever. I would be just as annoyed if I was being sent religious, charity, or political bulk mail.
7. Should the messages caught by the legislation be of a commercial advertising and promotional nature only or should other types of messages be caught? Should there be exceptions and if so what should be exempted? Exempting from political parties, religious groups and charities seems to not solve the problem. Spam would still be spam if I was being spammed by religious groups.
PerryLorier: It is not the content of the emails which is a problem, it is the number of them that cause the issue. Waking up and finding another 50 emails that are irrelevant to me if they are commercial in nature or not is my problem.
8. Should the legislation extend to coverage of acts done overseas? If so, what acts should be covered?
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+zcat(1); 'follow the money' - If the the spam benefits a New Zealand 'entity', it should make no difference that they hired some kid in Romania to send their mail via hacked Chinese servers. The same applies if a New Zealander organises the spamming on behalf of an overseas client. And I personally feel that it should also apply if a New Zealander, through lack of appropriate care and computer maintenence, allows their computer to become a 'spam relay' for someone else..
9. Should all parties involved in the act of spamming, such as the vendor sponsoring the spamming, be covered by the legislation? Should there be express exceptions such as for telecommunications companies and ISPs?
PerryLorier: Yes, all parties involved should be covered. I don't believe ISP's or telecommunications companies should be excepted, especially as these are the groups that are technologically the most able to perform spamming.
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11. If an opt-in or double opt-in approach was to be adopted, what should amount to express consent and what actions and/or relationships should amount to inferred consent to the sending of a "commercial" electronic message?
12. How should the scope of any opt-in or double opt-in assent be framed?
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+zcat(1): Double-opt-in only. The 'confirm' message should contain information that identifies the sender, clearly traces the web form submission or message which invoked it (IP address, mail headers, etc), and lists the name, origin, and purpose of the mailing list. It should not contain anything else that could be considered 'advertising'.
13. Should there be a requirement for commercial electronic messages to accurately identify the sender of the message? If so, what constitutes accurate identification (e.g. name and physical address, name and email address)?
PerryLorier: This should be a requirement for all commercial communications that they have obvious and accurate sender information. Commercial or not, it should be illegal to send mail as someone you are not.
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16. Should there be a requirement for the labelling of advertising or adult messages?
PerryLorier: Adult material should be labelled obviously as such and should be labeled in a way that can be detected by software for filtering purposes for younger children.
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+zcat(1): This shouldn't be necessesary. My children should not be recieving anything that they didn't explicitly subscribe to. I'm fairly sure they didn't sign up anywhere for hot oral sex and penis-enlargement emails, so I shouldn't HAVE to filter those out.
17. Should anti-spam legislation include rules against the supply, acquisition and use of address-harvesting software and harvested-address lists in connection with the unlawful sending of electronic messages?
PerryLorier: Yes. Publishing an email address on a website should not be an open invitation to email it with things that are unrelated to the page that it was posted on.
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20. What should be the available penalties and remedies for breaches of anti-spam legislation and what should be the maximum fine or pecuniary penalty?
PerryLorier: Can we suggest mandatory death penalty?
+zcat(1): seconded.
21. Should contraventions give rise to criminal or civil penalties?
22. Should the responsible enforcement agency be given the ability to obtain search warrants conferring powers of entry, search and seizure?
