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Australia struggles to outlaw junk emails
Canberra, Nov 28: Senders of electronic junk mail known as spam are unlikely to face multi-million-dollar fines in Australia after opposition parties watered down legislation in the Senate on Friday.
Canberra, Nov 28: Senders of electronic junk mail known as spam are unlikely to face multi-million-dollar fines in Australia after opposition parties watered down legislation in the Senate on Friday.
The measures passed by parliament's upper house, where the government is in a minority, included amendments by the main opposition and minor parties that allow firms to send emails to anyone they think might be interested in their products.
"This is a giant loophole that unscrupulous spammers could not have designed better themselves," Communications Minister Daryl Williams said in a statement.
The government had wanted the legislation, to be enforced by the Australian Communications Authority, to ban the sending of all commercial emails without the prior consent of end-users, unless there was an existing business relationship.
Williams said the government would reject the amendments when the legislation returned to the lower house and called on the opposition Labour and minor parties to pass the legislation in its original form.
The Senate did agree to fines of A$1.1 million ($724,000) for each day spam messages are sent by an individual or company. Spam accounts for roughly half all emails sent.
The Australian government has previously said the laws, drafted in consultation with the Internet industry, were not a "silver bullet" which would instantly stop the spam influx but was one effort to try to stop spam at the source.
In September, lawmakers in Britain and Italy banned the delivery of unwanted bulk emails, which politicians and business officials worry could become an increasingly costly nuisance for companies and individuals.
In Britain , convicted junk email senders face a 5,000-pound ($8,500) fine if found guilty in a magistrate's court, while the fine from a jury trial would be unlimited.
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved a bill to outlaw spam, which would see senders face jail time and multi-million-dollar fines. The House of Representatives now needs to approve minor technical changes before sending it to the White House.
President George W. Bush is expected to sign it into law by the end of the year.
Bureau Report
"This is a giant loophole that unscrupulous spammers could not have designed better themselves," Communications Minister Daryl Williams said in a statement.
The government had wanted the legislation, to be enforced by the Australian Communications Authority, to ban the sending of all commercial emails without the prior consent of end-users, unless there was an existing business relationship.
Williams said the government would reject the amendments when the legislation returned to the lower house and called on the opposition Labour and minor parties to pass the legislation in its original form.
The Senate did agree to fines of A$1.1 million ($724,000) for each day spam messages are sent by an individual or company. Spam accounts for roughly half all emails sent.
The Australian government has previously said the laws, drafted in consultation with the Internet industry, were not a "silver bullet" which would instantly stop the spam influx but was one effort to try to stop spam at the source.
In September, lawmakers in Britain and Italy banned the delivery of unwanted bulk emails, which politicians and business officials worry could become an increasingly costly nuisance for companies and individuals.
In Britain , convicted junk email senders face a 5,000-pound ($8,500) fine if found guilty in a magistrate's court, while the fine from a jury trial would be unlimited.
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved a bill to outlaw spam, which would see senders face jail time and multi-million-dollar fines. The House of Representatives now needs to approve minor technical changes before sending it to the White House.
President George W. Bush is expected to sign it into law by the end of the year.
Bureau Report