Combating Spam through Legislation: A Comparative Analysis of US and European Approaches

Unsolicited Commercial Communication also known as spam - has traditionally been the most visible e-mail threat and has reached a point where it creates a major problem for the development of ecommerce and the information society. It is currently estimated that 60 per cent of all email messages are spam. The United States, Australia, Canada, European Union including the United Kingdom have all recently implemented legislation in an attempt to combat Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCE). However due to the difficulty and complexity of the problem the implementation and enforcement of the law in a global environment is still to be resolved. This paper provides an overview of the various laws relevant to the problem of spam, and compares United States and European Union anti-Spam Legislation. It examines the extent to which law addresses the problem of spam and discusses some weaknesses. 1 Need for anti-spam Legislation Spam is just the tip of the ‘cyber-crime’ iceberg (JeanJac...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CEAS
• Authors: Evangelos Moustakas, C. Ranganathan, Penny Duquenoy
• Keywords: Anti-spam Legislation Spam, CEAS 2005, Information Society, Unsolicited Commercial Communication