Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam

[qwerky]

from yahoo news - i hope the spammers get spammed by dodgy internet lawyer "no win -no fee" emails

By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Thursday became the second country in Europe to criminalize spam, that unwanted barrage of e-mail and mobile phone text messages that promise get-rich-quick schemes, cheap home loans and a better sex life.

The unsolicited messages, which industry groups say account for more than half of all e-mails sent, have become the scourge of Internet users everywhere.

Under the new UK law, spammers face a 5,000 pound ($8,057) fine if convicted in a magistrates court. The fine from a jury trial would be unlimited. Spammers would not face prison, according to the new law, which was introduced by Communications Minister Stephen Timms on Thursday.

Spam is defined under the UK law as any messages sent to consumers without having first established a consensual customer relationship.



And now the bad? news

The UK legislation also sets guidelines for "cookies" -- electronic identification tags that help Web sites identify repeat visitors. Under the new law, consumers have the right to insist the Web site not store their personal information.

[NaturalInstinct]

Well, everyone wants to get rid of spam but this is not the way to go about it. They just haven't thought it through!

The "consent" rule is just too fluffy, what exactly is "consensual"

and the rule about cookies is laughable. Our site is built in asp.net which uses cookies to keep track of a user session. Without using cookies at all a user login is just not possible, all ecommerce software becomes instantly illegal. Actually everything could be held in the database but every time the user added something to their basket or wanted to view the contents they would have to supply a username and password. This could irritate people

This law also makes the governments own websites illegal, wonder if anyone has pointed this out to them ?

The only way round this for them is to make sure that a user landing on any page is automatically redirected to a page where they can give their consent. However, it would have to make sure that once the user had given consent they weren't redirected back there when they navigated to a different page which means they would have to use... you guessed it, a session, which would mean using....you guessed it, a cookie


*note, yes i am aware that values can be passed through URL name/value pairs but that's no good for login details.

[drivetowin]

I'm guessing that this new law is based on the European directive. It is important to realise that the directive does not outlaw session cookies - so no need for NI to worry - all ecommerce that uses session cookies is ok - the directive says that once a user leaves a site, the site should not retain information without their permission.

The simple way around this is include it in your privacy policy - of course you do have a privacy policy don't you ? - and have a clear link to it from your home page - which we will be doing on all our sites very soon.

Other thing to note is that it sounds as this act has just been introduced to the Commons which means it will be at least the Spring before it becomes law having passed through the normal Commons / Lords / Commons / Royal Assent stages.

[watcher]

What has a cookie stored on an individuals PC got to do with a web site storing personal details ?

Methinks that uninformed scaremongerers (politicians and interfering busy bodies in general) haven't a clue what a cookie is and don't realise that it is simply state data placed on the users PC.

The writing of a cookie to a PC does not irrefutably imply the storing of personal details. Why have the rule makers made an infactual relationship and then derived legislation from it ?

Naive comment...should be:

Once again the rule makers have made an infactual relationship and derived legislation from it.

[Barry]

The new law comes into effect on Dec 11th and is Criminal Law - meaning the State will press the case.
However it does not cover spam sent to businesses or employees of a business, it only protects consumers against spam.

So if you run a website as a business - watch out for that spam - its now been legalised!

And as for cookies, everybody using the internet (provided you know where the settings are) has the choice to disable cookies. I wonder if you just have a help section showing users how to disable cookies in their browser will be enough to cover it?

[SpendaPenny]

Again...what if the company in question setup an offshore site...?

Also...in theory...I could be fined...as some one has been hi-jacking my domain for spam...

if they don't understand cookies...how are they to understand email, re-addressing...

Damn...big fine coming my way then !!!