[anti-spam-wg@localhost] Swedish proposion on 2002/58/EG - B2B spam allowed

[Claes T <]

Not very surprising, but still....

Now it's official: Swedish government will propose UCE sent to
physical persons (with some exceptions) should be banned (not given
any other choice in the EU Directive) - *but* have decided B2B spam
should *not* be made illegal.

All spam shall have a valid removeme address. This is the only
spam-related paragraph which could render the sender any punishment at
all (a charge of fee for unfair marketing).

The motivation for allowing businesses and organisations to be spammed
is noteable: 
* Spam sent to businesses *is* increasing. 
* But businesses could protect themselves with blocklists. 
* And making a valid removeme-address mandatory should improve the
situation. 
And that's enough for now. If not sufficient, the government may rise
the issue again.

Law will be discussed in Parliament in January and come in effect from
April 1st, according to present schedule.

A recent Teliasonera pressrelease has been discussed here, but not the
closing part where Marie Ehrling (TeliaSonera) appealed:

"But the actions of Internet providers like us will not be enough,"
says Marie Ehrling. "Legislators, legal authorities, consumer
organisations and everyone who uses the Internet must use every
available means to stop the continuing spread of spam and viruses."

She didn't explicit mention governments...

Claes T