Forum Moderators: phranque
[cnn.com...]
The UN sponsors a large number of organisations that are much less well known than its political organs, and usually do a great job in coordinating international affairs in their specific field. The ITU is just one of those organisations, and it has been very successful in the past coordinating all kinds of global telecommunication issues.
They *have* to get involved, especially now that SPAM is increasingly becoming a problem eg. for mobile phones and other portable devices, which directly touches their aera of responsibility.
However, it is most important that the US (and other countries) pass anti-spam laws with teeth. The CAN-SPAM act basically says that you can spam.
A real law should:
* Allow private causes of action, where a receiver of spam or the ISP could sue for amounts specified in the law, such as $1,000 for each email. This would provide an incentive for ISPs and other organizations to hire professionals to track down spammers.
* Outlaw any spam that where there was no specific opt-in. Use of e-mail lists, obtained from others, would not be allowed.
* Allow the judgements and civil forfietures to be collected from the credit card processors (all money flowing through credit cards to a spammer would be stopped and would go to pay the plaintiffs.) If the spammer can't make any money, there is no incentive to spam.
There are many "legitimate" businesses and business organizations that are fighting to block any meaningful anti-spam law. However, a large group of citizens were able to get the Do-Not-Call list in place. The same groups and companies fought hard against the DNC list, but we were successful.
