EU leads call to arms against spam
The European Commission is calling for tougher action against spammers and better protection of online privacy.
An EU-funded study into the enforcement actions taken against junk mailers and other forms of internet abuse is inconsistent across the EU member states. Theoretically, we have all been protected against spam and spyware since 2002 when the EU directive on Electronic Privacy In Communications (EPIC) came into effect, but the increase in spam has continued unabated, much of it originating from within the EU.
The study analysed more than 140 enforcement cases against spammers and demonstrated the differences between member countries in anti-spam enforcement. Spain and Slovakia headed the list, both reporting 39 cases, whilst the highest fines against spammers was found in the Netherlands which levied a fine of a million Euros against one spammer, and Italy with a half-million Euro fine. One judge in Finland imposed a seven month jail sentence, although on appeal this was reduced to 160 hours of community work. But in other countries, penalties for spamming were as low as a few hundred Euros and scarcely a deterrent.
Sadly, Britain didn't figure at all in these statistics because actions against spamming in Britain are non-existent. The law as implemented by Britain is so badly watered down that business addresses have no spam protection whatsoever. Where cases have been brought against spammers, it has been for other crimes or frauds carried out during the act of spamming. The most famous case involving a British spammer was the jailing of Peter McCrae in 2006, but that was for a variety of offences including threatening to kill a trading standards officer, not for the act of spamming itself.
The Commission is proposing reforms which would tighten up enforcement of privacy rules and says "penalties for breaking national laws on online privacy should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive". If the rules are approved by the EU, member countries will be obliged to allocate adequate resources to national enforcement of those rules and ISPs would be entitled to take legal action against spammers who abuse their networks.
28th October 2009
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.