An image of Bill C-28 from the Government of Canada's website
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – A new Canadian anti-spam law could cost violators up to $10 million, according to a report Thursday by ITbusiness.ca.
Individuals violating the law could be fined a maximum penalty of $1 million, while organizations could be charged up to $10 million.
While Bill C-28, or the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act, received royal assent on December 15, the report says the new law will not be enforced until approximately eight months from now.
A year ago the Canadian government prorogued Parliament, postponing the Bill from being reviewed by the senate until May 2010.
Under Industry Canada’s supervision, three government organizations will be responsible for enforcing the law. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission will respond to basic complaints about spam, the Competition Bureau will be responsible for fraud and misleading commercial messages and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada will protect email addresses from being collected without consent.
The report says the Competition Bureau will receive $1.3 million to begin the enforcement program. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada will be given $700,000 this year and $2 million in future years to assist with its enforcement.
“The Conservatives said they want to force spammers out of Canada,” John Lawford, counsel for Public Interest Advocacy Group told ITbusiness.ca. “I don’t know if they’ll do that, but they’ll make it less enticing to spam here.”
Earlier this week, WHIR blogger Stacy Griggs wrote about the effect of spam on web hosts and noted a declining trend in spam. A recent Commtouch study shows a 30 percent drop in spam sent during the fourth quarter of 2010.
Bill C-28 ensures businesses receive explicit consent before sending commercial messages to an email address, social networking account or mobile phone.
According to the report, senior anti-spam technologies from Symantec Hosted Services Matt Sergeant says the law is unlikely to be effective at stopping the most common kind of spam – botnet spam driven by hackers.
“Make sure you’re not buying lists of email addresses, or you do have the potential to be taken to court,” he says. “There’s no purchased list that’s considered 100 per cent clean and safe to email too.”
Canada is about six years behind the US since the American anti-spam law, called CAN-SPAM, came into effect in January 2004.
The American law helps US consumers and businesses fight spam, placing various bans on commercial email while allowing certain kinds of unsolicited commercial email clearly marked as an advertisement and with an unsubscribe option.
While the US implemented its law in 2004, many states, like Virginia, enacted anti-spam laws prior to its federal legislation. Australia also enacted its anti-spam law in 2003.
The report claims the Canadian anti-spam law is the most comprehensive out of all the other international laws because of its resources.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
No related posts.
