KEY POINTS:
A law to tackle spam emails was passed last night, but critics say it will do little to combat the millions of unwanted messages sent into inboxes each year.
The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act bans unwanted emails and texts and requires senders of commercial messages to include accurate sender information and an unsubscribe option.
It also bans porn spam, which provides links to pornographic websites.
>> Read the story
This forum debate has now closed. Here is a selection of your views on the topic.
Lars
This anti spam law will be as effective as Sue Bradfords anti smacking bill.
Guy Brindle
A weak half hearted attempt at solving a growing problem. Could be a world leader showing the world the way it should be done, instead we get a very weak attempt at solving the problem. Surely the government realise that 95 per cent of spam is off shore based, and this will do absolutely nothing to help. The online community in New Zealand and the ISPs will still suffer from the growing amount of spam, which costs time and money to stop it.
Graham Keye
Re:Anti Spam Law, it will not stop the 60-80 a day spam emails my wife and I get. Most is stopped coming through to me by my ISP, but it is still there and the ISP cannot stop it coming to my email address. What is needed is for the ISPs to stop spam BEFORE it gets to my mailbox. They should have a "suspected junk" folder so if it is legit, one can still get it. Otherwise changing or adding new laws is a waste of time.
Tharon
No, doubt any laws will reduce or stop spam. 99 per centof what I receive, is generated from overseas. Seems a complete waste of time to me, to put any law in place to rid us of it.Those who are guilty of sending it will no doubt find ways to continue before too long.
Stephen
Having a law to prevent New Zealand based spammers operating is a great start. It would allow ISPs to work with regulators to censor perpetrators as spammers. IP addresses are tracked by ISPs who can then refuse them services, and if linked to a business its directors banned and the company deregistered and criminal proceedings initiated. Of course over 99.9% of all spam comes from offshore, usually from countries without anti-spam legislation, so lets set a good example and like with viruses, once the majority of countries enforce such rules the problem will be greatly reduced. Once most countries are onboard it makes it easier to then introduce technical measures to bounce email coming from non-participating countries. It will be important for NZ legislators to ensure consumers are protected from being the unwitting victims of botnets, which can use security vulnerabilities to use such users PC's to launch spam without their consent or knowledge.
Grant
The title of the article says it all: "Well-meaning but ineffective". Spam is not going to be stopped by legislation or the threat of more legislation. Spammers seem to have no conscience (look at the kind of wares they peddle). The Government would have been better to have saved the money and carbon dioxide emissions wasted on debating the bill, not to mention the paper it is printed on, and invested some money in researching a means of communications that does not rely on the obviously ailing SMTP. Email is a useful tool, but its use is being eroded by spam. What is really needed is a breakthrough technology that can facilitate the kinds of communication that email currently allows, but cannot be hi-jacked by spammers.
Justus Tonks
This new spam law itself is a spam! I am really sick of those law makers keep producing ridiculous laws. Dont they have heaps more important stuff to sort out?
Brian
I am sick of all the spam that i get please do something about it , I would be grateful. Thank you.
Alan Wilkinson
The amount of locally-produced spam is not small, it is microscopic. In fact amongst the daily avalanche that I filter out (most automatically) I cannot recall a single one that originated in New Zealand. It would be very heartening to hear our government was putting anywhere near as much focus on pressuring Russia, Ukraine and China to capture and lock away the criminal gangs who are deluging the world in spam as we are spending on the odd sad cases who spend their nights downloading child porn. Unfortunately this law is yet another piece of meaningless political posturing.
Kris
What a waste of effort it will be. The majority of spam originates outside of our borders and we have no control over that. Instead of finding time to debate something worthwhile (like the lack of infrastructure in the telecommunications environment) the pass a lame duck of a bill that will in the end do nothing.
Sean
This law is a load of crap. It will not do anything. Like it says in the article, there are only a couple of easy things you have to do to avoid the law and then spam is legal again. What they say about small business in this is also untrue, if anyone in the marketing world knew anything, email marketing is not a way of the future. It does not produce results.
Thomas
Once again our government displays moments of brilliance that are later watered down with their slow and way overdue passing of legislation in this area. Quite rightly it is pointed out in this mornings article that nearly all of the spam we receive in NZ is from offshore. We do have one or two of those nasty people creating spam in NZ but better late than never I suspect. It seems to me it is pretty much up there with carbon emissions, we do our bit sure but look at the rest of the world. Some have concerns about the extra costs to NZ businesses but there will not be any if they are getting the right information regarding the email marketing. Most only need to add a few lines to their emails to make them compliant. In fact any business that is not already compliant by keeping an eye on the US CANSPAM laws is way behind the times. Regardless of how much legislation is passed it will not stop the flow of spam from offshore.
