Month: September 2011

Comments on proposed CRTC regulations for Canada’s Anti-spam law

Sep 7, 2011 |

We need not go into how frequently abuse happens on the Internet. Daily news reports in the popular press and media speak to that, and the ubiquity of the problem cannot be overstated. Beside the obvious criminal element involved in spamming, hacking and other Inter­net abuse, there remain, unfortunately, some marketers from name-brand companies who engage in poor practices. Organizations like the Messaging Anti-abuse Working Group (MAAWG.org) have worked very hard to develop Best Common Practices documents, many based upon the fine work undertaken by the Canadian Task Force on Spam. We encourage you to review them as you proceed in this process and the work ahead of you.
Ivor Tossell perhaps said it best in his article recently published in the Globe and Mail:
“Providing real content to real customers with whom you’ve got a real relationship is the opposite of spam”
CAUCE generally supports the draft regulations. Our goal, which we believe you share, is that the recipient of electronic communications be protected from abuse, and when it occurs, be able to stop it, and report it easily and without technical skills beyond those of ordinary Internet users.
We must respect and preserve the ability for senders of commercial messaging to comply with the law and the regulations; we also think that avoiding trivial or technical ‘gotcha’ viola­tions is fundamental to an effective and fair anti-spam régime in Canada. That said, we anticipate some commentary will propose changes that open dangerous loopholes that will be quickly exploited by Internet abusers.
Marketers are not the main reason people are on the Internet; business use of the net still lags far behind what is most popular. The sites that individuals most often visit are social networks and other forms of personal, one-to-one interactions with friends and family, first and foremost.

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