Government: Our spam laws won't be enough

Daily Newsletters

Sign up to ZDNet UK's daily newsletter.

NEWS
The government has admitted that its forthcoming anti-spam law will not solve the problem of unsolicited bulk email on its own. This legislation will prevent UK companies from sending commercial emails to Internet users who haven't already given their permission, and should come into force this autumn. It is the UK government's way of implementing the European Union's directive on privacy and electronic communications. According to e-commerce minister Stephen Timms, who is overseeing the bill's introduction, it won't be enough. Timms told the Spam Summit at the House of Commons on Tuesday that a global approach was needed to combat the growing menace of spam. "Will spam vanish from inboxes at the end of October? Realistically, the answer has to be no," Timms said. He explained that this was because of the problem of tracing spammers, and because most unsolicited bulk email comes from outside the EU. However, Timms also cast doubt on the ability of the forthcoming legislation to put a stop to British offenders "Even in the UK, we can't expect complete compliance with the new directive," said Timms. Derek Wyatt MP, joint-chair of the All Party Internet group, which organised Tuesday's event, suggested that a global spam summit could be needed to drive the agenda forwards. In response, Timms said that a summit on the Information Society, to be held in Geneva in December this year, would include discussion on combating spam. Other contributors taking part in the debate included Steve Linford of Spamhaus, a project that traces the worse spammers and helps ISPs to block their traffic. "There are now 200 main spammers worldwide, and 90 percent of all spam can be traced back to one of these two hundred outfits," Linford told the Spam Summit. According to Linford, Spamhaus has a highly detailed knowledge of these 200 spammers, including knowing which IP addresses they control. This means Spamhaus can significantly hamper their work, but not completely stop it. "It's very hard for these people to use their networks for spamming, because we block them. However, everyone on our list sends at least 50 million spam emails per day, by using loopholes such as open relays and open proxies," said Linford, referring to computers on the Internet that will bounce an email or a request to a Web site onto another computer. Unsurprisingly, Spamhaus's work has not been well-received by the spamming community. "After we block them, they're on the phone threatening to slit our throats," Linford revealed. Linford also cast doubt on the ability of legislators to fight spammers. "These guys have spent lots of money on their networks, and they're not going to give up spamming whatever the law says," Linford warned.
For everything Internet-related, from the latest legal and policy-related news, to domain name updates, see ZDNet UK's Internet News Section. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

  • Login

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

UnderINK

I agree with the previous commenter wholeheartedly. I couldn't say it better myself. This is very 'Big Brother'. And while I agree with protecting...

2 hours ago by UnderINK on European e-identity plan to be unveiled this month
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

Nice to see that Turing's idea of a general purpose computer doing once-hardware-powered tasks in software is now universal ;-) Mary

7 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Software with everything
Jason Burchell

seriously now. I've only bothered to read a small bit of the comments. do me and the rest of the world a favour. stop saying it does not work or...

11 hours ago by Jason Burchell via Facebook on Music industry negotiating over 24-bit downloads
Philip Charles Cohen

Read about it and weep, John Donahoe ... In addition to Visa’s V.me, there is now MasterCard’s PayPass digital wallet soon to arrive; another...

15 hours ago by Philip Charles Cohen via Facebook on PayPal takes phone-based payments to the high street
apexwm

Leslie Satenstein : Where have you ever seen Mozilla even mention this? Firefox is the most popular browser in the GNU/Linux OS, so I don't see...

16 hours ago by apexwm on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux
songmaster

SHleG: Do you remember building a clockwork scorpion kit (I'm pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere) — I think it was called something like...

18 hours ago by songmaster on Software with everything
Chris Wortman

Good I love Yahoo! Their search engine is getting better than Google as of late. I find more of what I want on the first page, and usually within...

18 hours ago by Chris Wortman via Facebook on Linux Mint 13 ramps up for KDE release
PatrickG

openhgs has made the point for Windows 8 multiple monitors without realising it! With Windows 7 you have to switch the mouse and so your focus...

20 hours ago by PatrickG on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake
Leslie Satenstein

Mozilla has threatened to stop supporting Linux. I guess that UBUNTU is going with another browser. I indicated that if Mozilla stops supporting...

22 hours ago by Leslie Satenstein via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux
Andy Bolstridge

Much as I abhor Microsoft's licensing practices, this is almost certainly down to purchasing IT equipment via 3rd party consultants - you get the...

22 hours ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
Jack Schofield

@openhgs Windows users have had multiple desktops since Linus started writing Linux. They just haven't shipped as standard because not enough...

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake
Jack Schofield

@Phil at Cloud4 What, Microsoft gets £1,200 per PC and £1,622 per server? Gosh, I'm amazed....

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
craigsc

You guys have no idea what is going on at Autonomy. Autonomy could have been a much more profitable organization. The sales operations at Autonomy...

2 days ago by craigsc on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves
Moley

How does this impact on dual or multi booting? Seems to me to more or less prohibit this, from Windows 8 anyway. Will Grub 2 recognise Windows 8,...

2 days ago by Moley on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
apexwm

I don't understand why there cannot be a slight pause during the boot process so the user can press a key. Many operating systems do this, even if...

2 days ago by apexwm on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
Gavin Goodman

You can now buy the Xi3 modular computer in the UK at http://www.ocdistribution.com . This can be bought with the Tand3m software, pricing and...

2 days ago by Gavin Goodman on CES 2012: Xi3 microSERV3R
Phil at Cloud4

I agree: Mike Lynch can clearly build a business and manage strategy. I suspect the exit of Mike is more likely the end of a planned handover...

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves
Phil at Cloud4

This is unbeleivable government wastage with only one winner... Microsoft 1 - Tax payer Nil!

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
Mispam

So what do you do when you can't boot into windows? Why can't I just hold Shift while I power up instead of having to boot into windows and click a...

2 days ago by Mispam on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
apexwm

I've also seen that Mac OS X for Intel machines is supposed to run in VirtualBox, which would also be a nice solution. I've never tried it though.

2 days ago by apexwm on xTreme Triple Booting: Linux, Mac & Windows