People sending unsolicited e-mail advertisements and messages known as spam could be fined more than a million Australian dollars (US$660,000) under tough new laws proposed by the Australian government yesterday.
Introduced to the Australian Parliament by federal Communications Minister Richard Alston, the Spam Bill 2003 would fine spammers up to A$1.1 million (US$726,000) a day for sending illegal messages.
"Spam is a menace to home and business e-mail users and is a major scourge to productivity," Alston said in a statement. "It is commonly used to promote illegal, offensive and unscrupulous ventures such as black market drugs, celebrity porn, bogus prizes, Nigerian money laundering and other false and or fraudulent material."
But Alston acknowledged that the proposed law, which would likely come into force next year if it passes Parliament, would only tackle spam that originates in Australia, and that the legislation must be backed up by software designed to stamp it out.
"While legislation on its own is not a silver bullet which will instantly stop the spam influx, it is a critical part of the solution and is the only effective way to stop spam at the source," Alston said. "Technical solutions can eliminate a lot of spam, but only after it has been sent. There is a clear need to stop it from being sent in the first place."
Alston said spam is estimated to account for about half of all e-mail traffic worldwide while the emergence of spam-carrying computer viruses threatens communication systems and online businesses.
The legislation also will outlaw software that "harvests" e-mail address lists from computers and empower courts to recover financial gains made by spammers to compensate people who have suffered financial losses.
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