Taiwanese authorities were urged yesterday to accelerate the enactment of anti-spam legislation to reduce its negative effects on productivity, ward off privacy infringements and alleviate the other social problems attributed to unsolicited e-mail.
Huang Ching-ning (黃菁甯), a lawyer with the non-profit Institute for the Information Industry, said that Taiwan should emulate the US, EU and Australia in enacting regulations to govern unsolicited e-mail to prevent the development of Taiwan's information industry from being adversely affected.
An opinion poll conducted recently by the non-profit Secure Online Shopping Association (SOSA) showed that 40 percent of the e-mail received daily by domestic Internet users is unwanted junk mail, which causes a tremendous waste of time and energy on the part of consumers, as well as having a negative impact on business efficiency.
According to SOSA, unwanted e-mail cost businesses in the US US$9 billion in lost productivity last year, making it an issue worthy of serious attention.
SOSA officials noted that California in September established the toughest ever anti-spam measures, slapping fines of up to US$1 million on offenders.
US President George W. Bush last week signed the "Can-spam Act" aimed at reining in the proliferation of unwanted e-mail. The act was approved by the US Congress last month.
Liu Chiang-ping (劉江彬), director of the Institute of Intellectual Property Studies at National Chengchi University, said that in addition to the US action, other governments, including those of the UK and Singapore, have also in recent months enacted legislation to control the tide of spam.
Liu attributed the flood of offensive Internet bulk advertising and pornographic e-mail to the fact that sending such mail is much cheaper than sending postal "snail" mail or running television advertisements.
The professor said that despite the urgency of stopping spam, some critics in Taiwan have cautioned that anti-spam legislation should not infringe on people's freedom of speech.
Liu said SOSA is the only organization in Taiwan that provides businesses and advertising firms with a set of non-binding self-disciplinary measures aimed at regulating the content of electronic messages.
He said that so far there have only been "discussions" on the enactment of related laws and that Taiwan "has a long way to go" before it will see an anti-spam bill passed into law.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS