[anti-abuse-wg] how to detect spambots - SPAMTrusted

--On 4 March 2009 17:43:50 +0100 Frank Gadegast 
<ripe-anti-spam-wg at powerweb.de> wrote:

>
>> Thats where I believe you are not entirely correct. UBE is permitted in
>> my country (not all types of course, greasy ones etc). (.cx)
>
> Well not in ours. (.de)

In the UK, unsolicited electronic marketing messages are illegal - bulk or 
otherwise - when they're sent to personal addresses. There's guidance on 
"unsolicited", "marketing", and "personal". Unsolicited Business to 
Business marketing is permitted. The law applies to all electronic 
messaging, not just email. The term marketing is broadly defined, and 
includes messages soliciting votes in elections, and charity appeals.

Furthermore, a "simple means of opting out" must be supplied with EVERY 
marketing message. For example, even SMS messages usually carry an opt out 
message like "text STOP to nnnnn".

I think it's sensible apply the law without regard to quantity, for several 
reasons:

1. The recipient can't know whether the message is "Bulk" or not, and they 
should be able to make a complaint based on information that they have 
access to. A message doesn't annoy a recipient less when they're the only 
recipient - at least not if they don't know that.

2. It would be hard to define "Bulk", given that senders can send variants 
of messages, and can send them at staggered intervals. The higher the 
threshold is set, the harder it is to obtain evidence to convict.

3. Bulk mailers are inherently more likely to attract complaints. They're 
more likely to have complaints against them upheld, and penalties are 
likely to be more serious. Therefore there's no necessity to add 
legislative discrimination. On the other hand, they may have more resources 
to defend an action against them.



-- 
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
x3148