Australia registers world's first anti-spam code of practice

Tue Mar 28, 12:02 PM ET
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060328...N5bnN1YmNhdA--



SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian regulators registered what they said was the world's first industry code for battling spam, a set of rules that could impose massive fines on Internet service providers who fail to help counter the plague of unwanted emails.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said the legislative code of practice will come into force in July, building on a 2003 Spam Act which focused on the spammers themselves rather than the Internet Service Providers (ISP).

"This is the first legislative code of practice for Internet and email service providers in the world, and I highly commend the Australian Internet industry on its work against the problem of spam, said ACMA chairman Chris Chapman.

"Australia is again leading the world in the global fight against spam, which will require joint action by industry, regulators and end-users."

Unsolicited emails, or spam, cost business and private Internet users worldwide billions of dollars a year in computer security systems and wasted time.

The new Australian code will require ISPs to offer spam filtering options to subscribers and to put in place a process for handling users' complaints.

It also imposes limits on the rate at which users can send emails, to prevent spammers from flooding the net with unsolicited sales pitches and other material.

Providers who fail to enforce the new regulations face penalties of up to 10 million dollars (7.1 million US).

The code also sets out how ISPs should deal with misconfigured customer email servers and virus-infected computers used to spread spam, known as zombies.

It applies to all of the 689 active Internet service providers in Australia, as well as to global firms such as Hotmail and Yahoo providing services in Australia.

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