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New antispam legislation has been introduced into Australia's House of Representatives that allows for penalties of up to US$733,000 ($1.1 million Australian dollars) per day for sending spam--and one lawmaker has called on the United States to follow suit with similar legislation.
The spam bill would apply to spam that originates in Australia and contains a flexible sanctions regime that includes warnings, infringement notices and court-awarded penalties. Senator Richard Alston, Australia's minister for communications, information technology and the arts, said the legislation is part of a "multilayered" approach and is meant to complement the use of e-mail filtering software.
Alston acknowledged that the vast majority of spam originates overseas. "The bulk of spam seems to originate in the U.S., and if the U.S. goes down the same path as us by adopting an opt-in model, then I think that will make a very big difference," he said. "But in the meantime, we can only do what's possible within Australia--but, of course, in combination with users helping themselves."
The legislation won the endorsement of Australia's Internet Industry Association (IIA). Peter Coroneos, chief executive of the IIA, said the spam bill incorporates most major elements the industry has pushed for and reflects standards the association has defined for its own members.
"It will position Australia as one of the first countries anywhere to enact national antispam legislation and marks another milestone in the continued battle against spam," Coroneos said.
The British government introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to protect Internet and mobile phone users from unsolicited commercial emails.
The new law--which is Britain's implementation of the EU Privacy and Electronics Communication Directive, and comes into force on 11 December--makes it an offence for a UK company to send junk email or text messages, unless the recipient is an existing customer or has given their permission to receive such material. Firms who flout the law could face a £5,000 (US$8,056) fine for each breach.
However, only personal email accounts will be covered. It will still be legal for a company to send unsolicited commercial messages to corporate email addresses.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), this decision was taken so that "legitimate business to business communication" was not hampered. This may be little consolation to UK workers who find their inboxes full of adverts for Viagra, debt-relief plans and pills for "physical enhancement", but the DTI insists that during its recent consultation on the EU directive, many businesses said they didn't want to lose email as a marketing tool.
E-commerce minister Stephen Timms explained that it was also important to educate users on how to cut down the amount of spam they receive, and to take an international approach to the issue.
This last point carries considerable weight, as there is concern that the US is taking the wrong approach to spam regulation. While the EU directive has pushed for an opt-in system, America looks to be on course to introduce legislation that would put the onus on individuals to opt-out of receiving unsolicited email from companies.
Experts have warned that this could lead to the meltdown of the Internet as a communications medium, because it would effectively legitimise spamming.
Timms did not criticise the US' approach to spam, and said he was encouraged that moves were being taken to address the problem.
"I hope we can have a good dialogue about how we can take action that is effective for both of us. We've got a lot to talk about," Timms told ZDNet UK.
With so much spam coming from outside of Europe, there have been claims that the European directive -- and the UK's implementation of it through this new legislation -- will only have a limited impact.
The new laws will also cover cookies, which are small pieces of code that are stored on a user's hard drive and record personal details. Web sites will now have to clearly identify when they operate a cookie, and will have to allow users to switch them off.
ZDNet Australia's James Pearce reported from Sydney. ZDNet U.K.'s Graeme Wearden reported from London.
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