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French study warns against spam via Plaxo
The ad-hoc French organisation ‘halte au spam’ (stop spam) organised a successful forum on spam in Paris on 3 November. The forum was attended by more than 200 people, including 25 journalists. During the forum an interesting new study was presented about the privacy-dangers of social internet-tools like Plaxo. Plaxo’s service invites you to upload […]
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New anti-spam legislation in NL and Austria
On the 31st of October, the European Directive on Privacy in electronic communications (2002/58/EC) went into force. Only a minority of countries has implemented the directive in time, but any European citizen can now directly appeal to the directive in their national courts. Most recently, the Dutch Lower House accepted the spam-ban on 4 November, […]
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Expert meeting on spam in Brussels
With only a few days to go before the 31 October deadline for the transposition of the new Directive for Privacy and Electronic Communications, on 13 October the Commission organised a public workshop about spam. More than 200 public and private stake-holders attended, ranging from government representatives to consumer & civil rights groups and from […]
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First decision against spam in Poland
The Polish agency for Competition and Consumer Protection recently for the first time condoned a spammer. According to the agency, the Firm Edukacyjna Impuls Plus from the city of Grudziadz had violated the Provision of Electronic Services Bill by sending unsolicited commercial mail. The businessman was ordered to stop such actions and to publish a […]
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UK politicians call for more anti-spam measures
In the UK an influential group of Members of Parliament has called for more anti-spam measures. In a report published last Monday, the MPs ask for greater enforcement powers for the government watchdog responsible for tackling spam, the information commissioner. The All Parliament Internet Group is also urging the Department of Trade and Industry to […]
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First ruling under new UK anti-spam legislation
On 11 December 2003 new anti-spam legislation in the UK will come into force, implementing the European Directive on privacy in the telecommunications sector (2002/58/EC). In the UK, spammers risk a fine of 7.196 EUR (5.000 GBP) from a magistrates court or even an unlimited penalty from a jury. Though a criminal offence, spammers in […]
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Fines and prison sentence for Italian spammers
Italy is introducing tough fines and prison sentences against spammers. Senders of unsolicited junk e-mails can expect fines up to a maximum of 90.000 euros and 3 years in prison. The penalties go far beyond those in any other European country. All EU member states will have to outlaw spam by 31 October 2003 as […]
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Commission wants enforcement of spam-ban
The European Commission is planning to issue a Communication this autumn calling for effective enforcement of the spam-ban, EU Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said during a press conference yesterday. Action would focus on effective enforcement, notably through international cooperation, technical measures for countering spam, and consumer awareness. The proposed measures would be first tested with Member […]
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Answers to EU questionnaire on spam
During the last meeting of the EU Communication Committee on 11 June, a document was presented with answers of the member states to the questionnaire on spam. The same document was also presented next day to the members of the article 29 working party (the collaboration between the EU data protection authorities). The questionnaire was […]
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Trial of Nigerian spammers in the Netherlands
A gang of 6 Nigerian spammers was put to trial on 15 May. The gang was arrested last year in the Netherlands. Operating from Amsterdam the group posed as very rich businessmen from Nigeria. Victims were promised a lot of money in exchange for a temporary loan. The Dutch police estimates the gang earned at […]
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Update on anti-spam legislation
In the previous EDRI-gram 6 EU-countries were mentioned that already have a spam-ban, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Greece, Italy and Austria, plus Hungary and Norway in Europe-at-large. We can now add France, Romania and Poland to this list. French E-Commerce Directive (approved 26.02.2003 in the Lower House) http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/ta/ta0089-2.pdf Polish E-commerce Directive (effective 10.03.2003) http://www.giodo.gov.pl/English/ust_podpis_el.htm Romanian E-commerce […]
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EU questionnaire on spam-ban
Per 31 October 2003 spamming will be prohibited in all EU member states, but it is completely unclear what authority should supervise the spam-ban. The European Commission doesn’t have a ready-made answer, and is currently asking privacy-authorities and telecommunications ministries what approach they prefer. The new Privacy Directive prohibits the sending of unsolicited e-mail but […]
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