New Australian Anti-Spam Law could impose fines in excess of $1million

[jkuiters]

New laws passed by Australian Federal Government 2nd Dec, sees the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) become the nation's spam watchdog, with powers to issue formal warnings and issue infringement notices and fines.

Political, religious and charitable groups are exempt from the new laws.

Commercial organisations can still send messages with the consent of the recipient, but the message must contain the details of the business, and an unsubscribe facility.


Sydney Morning Herald Article
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/02/1070127417719.html

Parliament of Australia Website
http://www.aph.gov.au

Spam Act 2003 - An overview for business
http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/20453/Spam-overview4business.pdf

Spam Act 2003 - A practical guide for business
http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/21725/DCITA-Spam-4Bus-Web.pdf

[mlee]

It's important to note that this proposed legislation will only have jurisdiction over spam with an "australian link" (so as to avoid problems with countries claiming national sovereignty)

so to be covered by the Bill, the message's Australian link must be one of the following:

- the person who sent the message, or authorised its sending is physically present when the messaeg is sent
- the organisation who sent the message or authorised its sending, has central management and control in australia when the message is sent
- the computer, device or server that is used to access the message is located in australia
- the relevant email- account holder is an individual or organisation physically present in australia when the messaged is accessed
- if the message can't be sent because the address didn't exist, but had the address existed it's reasonably likely that the message would have been accessed by a computer server or device located in australia

DEFENCES:

- the recipient consented to receiving the message
- the message was sent by mistake
- the sender could not have resonably known there was an Australian link.

when talking about consent, the Bill allows the sending of messages to people who have outright requested them - but also allows the sending of message where consent could reasonably have been inferred from the individual's or organisation's conduct. So consent may be inferred in a situation where an individual has agreed to be added to the mailing list of Company A, and they start receiving emails from Company B, Comany A's wholly owned subsidiary/another division within Company A. However, the sender has the burden of proving that consent could reasonably be inferred.

Also, the message must be cabable of allowing the recipient to opt out, with some kind of workable unsubscribe function.

WHAT IS SPAM?

when covering Spam, the Bill doesn't just restrict itself to the obvious "receive a free diploma" or "hot scandanavian teens" emails - it covers ALL unsolicited commercial mass email marketing - so always be sure that the people you're sending your mass email to have consented to receiivng marketing-related communications from you. The fact that you run a respectable, legitimate business is not a defence.

[dkiss]

Q. Why would you worry?
A. If you are a spammer.

SIMPLE: keep your mailing list legit and you won't have a problem.