Posted: 11th Dec, 2003 By: MarkJ
For obvious reasons there's a definite 'spam' theme to much of today's news. ISP intY has added its voice by highlighting the ineffective side of new anti-spam legislation:
New ineffective spam legislation does not benefit public
The Government's new spam legislation introduced on 11th December will not benefit the public in any way, intY has warned today. Vast sums of money have gone into have gone into funding these reactive bureaucracy measures and it will still make no difference to the levels of spam that individuals receive.
The UK's leading provider of secure Internet and e-mail communications believes that the only people to benefit from the new laws are direct marketing agencies and email list owners. Marketers will have another level of complexity to deal with in order to avoid prosecution. They must buy "clean" lists of people who have permitted contact via e-mail. The only winners are the owners of those lists - they will be in great demand.
Mark Herbert, managing director and founder of intY, explains: "These laws just don't benefit the public at all. I think the government should be spending its money on real issues such as providing more teachers and healthcare. It's a scandal that so much is spent on bureaucracy to enforce spam legislation so obviously ineffectual from the outset.
The new laws are impotent as spammers will just ignore them. Most obnoxious spam comes from overseas, where there are few laws. Some spammers may get prosecuted, but there will always be others willing to take their place. Regional laws are irrelevant to these people. As long as there is demand for the products, websites or services promoted through spamming, spammers will supply. Standalone legislation like this will not help at all; the only way for legislation to make a dent is by joined-up global law."
intY believes that the a clean flow of e-mail should be just as attainable as clean supply of running water. In the same way that people trust a company to deliver a quality flow of water, so they will trust third parties to deliver a clean flow of e-mail. More ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will turn to providing anti-spam solutions for consumers, whilst businesses will start running enterprise-wide anti-spam filters from trusted providers. It will be up to those consumers and businesses to pay their money and take their choice. Spam will never be stopped by legislation. Businesses and consumers must learn that like everything else, hassle-free e-mail must be paid for.