[anti-spam-wg@ripe.net] European Spam Laws are 'meaningless'

[Mally Mclane <]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3666585.stm

European anti-spam laws lack bite
 
European laws on spam are "meaningless" finds a study by Dutch academics. 
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam said the laws will provide
no safeguard against spam because most of it originates outside the
EU's borders.

Only a co-ordinated international effort will make a difference to the
amount of spam being sent they warn.

The authors of the study say the European laws also lack key clauses
that would make them more useful to end users.

The EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications passed in
July 2002 set out guidelines for how direct marketing should and
should not be done.

The directive placed obligations on those sending spam and said people
had to be allowed to opt-in to receive unsolicited messages.

The nine-month study of the EU laws on spam has been carried out by Dr
Lodewijk Asscher and colleagues from the Institute for Information Law
at the University of Amsterdam working with filtering firm Sybari.

Dr Asscher and his co-workers analysed recent European laws that ban
spam as well as older legislation designed to tackle the rising tide
of unwanted commercial messages.

Spammers tend to send huge amounts of e-mail in the hope that a few of
the messages will get through to working e-mail accounts or simply
tempt people to respond.

Statistics on spam gathered by mail filtering firm E-Mail Systems has
found that 80% of the mail messages being sent to schools are spam.

It also found that more than half of those messages contain
pornographic content.

The Dutch researchers found that the EU legislation on spam has a lot
of potential to regulate and stop spam but currently that potential is
simply not being realised.

Says the study: "The simple fact that most spam originates from
outside the EU restricts the European Union's Directive's
effectiveness considerably."

As a result the pan-Europe opt-in rule, which means spam only goes to
those that choose to receive it, is rendered "meaningless" said the
study.

Without similar anti-spam rules being adopted across the globe, the EU
directives are not going to stop spam sent to European e-mail users
from beyond the region.

The researchers said the EU laws have other weaknesses such as no
clear way for users to complain if net providers are not doing enough
to stop spam.

They also found that eight EU member nations have yet to implement the
directive despite the deadline for compliance falling more than six
months ago.

The rogue nations - Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal and Finland - have been threatened with legal
action.