The Spanish government has proposed a new law that would make sending unsolicited email advertising, commonly known as 鈥渟pam鈥�, illegal and punishable with a hefty fine. However, some industry experts say that such a law will have little impact without international cooperation.
Those convicted of sending spam under the law would be fined between 鈧�61,000 to 鈧�300,000. But Yaman Akdeniz, director of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties, says the law would be unlikely to reduce spam in Spain significantly.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it will resolve the problem because most spam will come from other countries,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here is no specific European directive and we need a co-ordinated policy.鈥�
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Open relays
Spam is outlawed in some states in the US. But under European data protection laws, sending bulk advertising email is only illegal if the recipient has asked not to receive the mail. A new directive was proposed in December 2001 would have made spam illegal across Europe but this was rejected by the European parliament. This leaves it up to individual member states to impose regulations.
Piete Brooks, an anti-spam campaigner at Cambridge University, says that Spain鈥檚 new law would still provide a welcome way of combating spam. He also says that only professional spam senders would be affected. 鈥淣ormally recourse to law is only in severe and persistent cases,鈥� he says.
But he adds that proving someone has sent spam can be tricky. This is because they may often use temporary internet accounts or computer servers, known as 鈥渙pen relays鈥�, that are configured incorrectly allowing them to be used to forward bulk email.
The new law has been adopted by the Spanish cabinet but has not been submitted to parliament. It could be adopted in Spain this summer.
