The (Possible) Future of International Spam Laws

by J.D. Falk

After more than a decade of fits and starts, fear and doubt, lies and lobbying, legislative attention towards spam now seems to arrive in regular waves.

Our friend Dennis Dayman reports on deliverability.com that a new law has taken effect in Israel, requiring (in short) opt-in — and so according to the International Herald Tribune, Israeli marketers were rushing to re-confirm questionable subscriptions before the deadline this past Monday. In Canada, Internet law expert Michael Geist lambasted his government for continuing to fail to pass any anti-spam legislation, four years after he and the National Task Force on Spam — which also included our own Neil Schwartzman — strongly urged them to take immediate action. And this week at the Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, I've heard representatives from more than a dozen governments from all over the world discussing not whether "cyber crime" legislation is necessary, but rather how it should be formulated to fit their local legal standards and culture.