Taiwan’s Legislators Asking for Tough Provisions in Anti-spam Bill

On April 6, 2009, the National Communications Commission (NCC, Taiwan) was
criticized for anti-spam bill at the convention of legislature's
Transportation Committee. Legislators were asking for hard penalties against
spam distributors.

Wu Kuan-chao, Judge, Ministry of Justice Civil Department, says that if the
bill is passed, it will become an important base of civil lawsuit, as
reported by AsiaMedia on April 7, 2009.

According to the bill, the victim of spam would get compensation from NT$500
to NT$2,000 for every junk mail, said Wu. He has also added that if a person
receives 10 junk mails everyday, he will be remunerated around NT$5,000
everyday which means he will get NT$150,000 every month. This forms a strong
reason for those people who just want to file case against advertisers.
However, this would result in endless lawsuits.

Moreover, Wu claims that the bill goes only after the Internet portal service
vendors and advertisers. It requires violators to compensate the victims
instead of punishing them.

Further, legislators add that the bill claims that the victims are required
to furnish proof that the junk mail has damaged their interests. Although the
bill enables users to file corporate lawsuits, the case has to be filed
jointly by almost 20 people. After this, they have to show that they either
got spam from the same distributor or the harm took place by the same kind of
junk mail they got regularly.

Legislators are also anxious that the bill will not be able to persuade
victims to come forward. They also inform that the lawsuits consume time and
money, and some of them will agree to go to the trouble with the chances of
gaining nothing in return.

The legislators also recommend that the government should not allow people
from getting into the time consuming legal procedure.

Moreover, Yeh Yi-ching, Legislator, Democratic Progressive Party, says that
the NCC should decide separate penalties for spam circulators, as reported by
Taipei Times on April 6, 2009.

Presently, similar rules and regulations on spam circulation are used in the
US, Australia and Japan.

Related article: Twin phishing E-Mails Pose from Bank of Hanover

» SPAMfighter News - 4/15/2009