I noticed this over at Will's: Bill C-460, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Unsolicited Electronic Mail). Sure we all hate spam but this is too much:
- It is too late. Email is lost. Why criminalize activity in a medium which constitutes more than 50% of activity on the medium. You may as well outlaw cross-posting on Usenet.
- Is spamming really a crime? What gets to be crime? Not just bad things.
- The offenses are insane. Up to a quarter million dollars and/or two years for a first offence.
Every one who wilfully publishes a statement, tale or news that he knows is false and that causes or is likely to cause injury or mischief to a public interest is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.This section actually addresses the wrong - "that causes or is likely to cause injury or mischief to a public interest" - and caps the maximum imprisonment at two years. Under C-460 a second offence can get you five years and there is no requirement to do any harm. Maybe I have lived a charmed life but I in my seven years as a web nerd have never seen a "sexually explicit pop-up". Do they exist? Apparently he is a commando in the fight to combat what he terms commercial "cyber wars" with crime control credentials.
Don't worry. It is only a private member's bill so has gone nowhere, it's natural destiny. It was the efforts of Mel's local MP, Dan McTeague, who apparently believes the annoying and vulgar should be criminalized. Most of my friends are annoying and vulgar. McTeague appears to be the only Liberal in Canada not to be a cabinet minister under either Chretien or Martin.
Comments
Alan - May 25, 2004 10:12 AM
Interesting to note that spam is up to 70% of all email activity. Soon email in-boxes will just be shutting down as legitimate activity tails off. I have had maybe two or three personal email conversations in the last month. By the end of 2005, the medium will be dead.
Adam - May 25, 2004 12:55 PM
"The offenses are insane. Up to a quarter million dollars and/or two years for a first offence."
Agreed... I think a better fate for spammers would be mandatory castration. That way they'd be less inclined to send out all that Viagra and Penis Enlargement spam..... or maybe more inclined for the latter. Who knows.
I'm a big proponent of mandatory castration for spammers! In fact, maybe I'll found an activist group:
Spammers Leave the Internet or be Castrated, Enough!
or SLICE! for short.
Who's with me?
Alan - May 25, 2004 12:58 PM
Do we still need email? Why have a crime for the adultarization of an unneeded asset.
Nils Ling - May 26, 2004 1:44 PM
An unnsolicited electronic mail message, according to this legislation, is one that is "(a) sent by a sender to a recipient with whom the sender does not have a pre-existing business relationship ..."
I have no pre-existing business relationship with you, Alan. Nor, in fact, do I have a pre-existing business relationship with my mom or all but a few business contacts.
My mom has rarely, if ever, asked me to send her e-mails. Ergo, any e-mail I send her is, of and by its nature, unsolicited.
So, according to this legislation, if I send an e-mail to my Mom, I am at her mercy, because "196.2 Every one who knowingly sends or transmits an unsolicited electronic mail message to a recipient is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(a) for a first offence, to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years or a fine of $250,000 or to both; and
(b) for a second or subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years or a fine of $500,000 or to both.
Now, I love my Mom, and I kinda like you, but if this legislation goes through, you're both off my list.
I will, however, take great joy in reporting all those people who send me those goddamn stupid e-mail Christmas wishes from their families that always start with "Sorry for the mass e-mail, but we've had a wonderful year ...". I also look forward to my revenge on those dopes who send out warnings about the "teddy bear virus" and who send me long forwards of forwards of forwards of stupid blonde jokes.
You know who you are. And you're goin' down, the lot of you.
Nils Ling - May 26, 2004 1:47 PM
And I've seen sexually explicit pop-ups. Just never on my computer screen ...