Bully
09-09-2003, 06:32 PM
ANTI-SPAM legislation is being fast-forwarded by the Federal Government. The Bill is expected before parliament within weeks.
Communications and IT Minister Richard Alston announced on July 23 that electronic junk mail would be banned and fines imposed on local spammers.
Despite doubts about the practicality of banning spam, most of which comes from the US, the legislation would be introduced in early October, a spokesman for Senator Alston said yesterday.
"The draft Bill has been ticked off by Cabinet, and consultations with the Internet Industry Association and the Australian Direct Marketing Association are largely completed," the spokesman said.
"There is still some fine-tuning to do, but we've received informal indications from the Democrats and the Labor Party that they'll support it."
The spam ban is likely to be in place before Christmas, according to NOIE online policy manager Lindsay Barton.
Because of the urgency of the matter, consultations had been limited to "Budget lock-up style half-day sessions" with invited parties, Mr Barton told the University of NSW Cyberspace Law Centre Surveillance and Privacy 2003 conference.
Spamming was getting out of hand, and now accounted for more than 50 per cent of emails sent worldwide, he said.
"Legislation is the approach that will give people the least immediate relief," he said.
"Equally, it is the one that will allow us, in the long term, to get back to the people who are spamming and tap them on the shoulder."
The proposed law will ban sending commercial emails without the recipient's prior consent and ban the use of email harvesting or list-generating software.
The law will be enforced by the Australian Communications Authority under new powers allowing it to impose civil sanctions, including financial penalties.
It would be about 18 months before applications that could seriously tackle spam were developed for the global market, IIA chief executive Peter Coroneos said.
The importance of email in business would help the push for a solution, although complete elimination of spam was unlikely, he said.
The Federal Government's move to ban spam would have little direct affect on Australia, because the volume of spam coming from servers under Australian jurisdiction was small, Mr Coroneos said.
Nevertheless, by enacting spam laws, Australia would have the "credibility to go into world forums and argue that other countries follow suit".
The US constitution's first amendment, which guarantees free speech, was proving a "stumbling block" in the war against spam, he said.
However, because spam was a global problem, all countries would be forced to tackle it, he said. Even countries that were largely unregulated would be forced to act in the long run.
Communications and IT Minister Richard Alston announced on July 23 that electronic junk mail would be banned and fines imposed on local spammers.
Despite doubts about the practicality of banning spam, most of which comes from the US, the legislation would be introduced in early October, a spokesman for Senator Alston said yesterday.
"The draft Bill has been ticked off by Cabinet, and consultations with the Internet Industry Association and the Australian Direct Marketing Association are largely completed," the spokesman said.
"There is still some fine-tuning to do, but we've received informal indications from the Democrats and the Labor Party that they'll support it."
The spam ban is likely to be in place before Christmas, according to NOIE online policy manager Lindsay Barton.
Because of the urgency of the matter, consultations had been limited to "Budget lock-up style half-day sessions" with invited parties, Mr Barton told the University of NSW Cyberspace Law Centre Surveillance and Privacy 2003 conference.
Spamming was getting out of hand, and now accounted for more than 50 per cent of emails sent worldwide, he said.
"Legislation is the approach that will give people the least immediate relief," he said.
"Equally, it is the one that will allow us, in the long term, to get back to the people who are spamming and tap them on the shoulder."
The proposed law will ban sending commercial emails without the recipient's prior consent and ban the use of email harvesting or list-generating software.
The law will be enforced by the Australian Communications Authority under new powers allowing it to impose civil sanctions, including financial penalties.
It would be about 18 months before applications that could seriously tackle spam were developed for the global market, IIA chief executive Peter Coroneos said.
The importance of email in business would help the push for a solution, although complete elimination of spam was unlikely, he said.
The Federal Government's move to ban spam would have little direct affect on Australia, because the volume of spam coming from servers under Australian jurisdiction was small, Mr Coroneos said.
Nevertheless, by enacting spam laws, Australia would have the "credibility to go into world forums and argue that other countries follow suit".
The US constitution's first amendment, which guarantees free speech, was proving a "stumbling block" in the war against spam, he said.
However, because spam was a global problem, all countries would be forced to tackle it, he said. Even countries that were largely unregulated would be forced to act in the long run.