Cajun,
"If the French are on to something, then let’s learn from it."
I'm having trouble finding stuff in English regarding French laws against spam but here is what I can resume for you and what links I could find for you in English.
First a little history of computers and media in France :
The French had the first equivalent to commerical internet about 20 years ago (in 1982) in the form of terminals called "
Minitel" that would use phone lines to connect to one another. People could chat, play games, order train tickets and buy cars on the Minitel system way before Internet had moved into the commercial market. Today Minitel is being replaced with Internet but France recognized the need to create laws to protect people and businesses in what they saw as the birth of a new digital era.
When Minitel was still a prototype in January 1978 the French legislature passed a bill called "
loi n° 78-17 du 6 janvier 1978 relative à l'informatique, aux fichiers et aux libertés" or "6th of January law relative to computers, records and liberties". The law set out to protect people against abuse and incorporates many things that were only seen later in most Canadian provinces.
The 6th of January law allowed for the creation of the CNIL or National Computer and Liberties Commission which reevalutes regularly the shape of the digital age to better protect citizens and goverment from abuse. The mandates of the CNIL are to study computer/media related practices, educate legislature and people regarding their rights amongst other things.
The CNIL helped create a color coded phone directory system so that people would not be bothered if they wished not to be.
White : anyone can see your phone number in the public directory. Businesses are allowed to call you for those annoying supper time surveys and to ask if your rugs are clean.
Red : no one can see your phone number except the phone compagny. The only people that call you are the people you gave your number to. Businesses are not allowed to generate random numbers so this means they can't call you unless you gave your phone number to them. Usually businesses ask what time they should call you if need be when they do require your number.
Orange : Your phone number is listed in the phone book so individuals can find your number and call you. Businesses cannot call you unless you opt-in with them and can be sued if they try.
Laws were passed so that hefty fines were given to companies that infriged the right to being left alone. Because of this it made sense for the judicial/penal system to pursue compagnies that infringe these laws.
When I was in France I was on the Orange list and never got a call I didn't wish for, had I been bothered there was a number I could call and the last number that called me would be traced and authorities would check it out. I could also sue the compagny directly as some individuals did against a phone compangny that mistakingly used the wrong list. They settled for free unlimited cellular phone service for 20 years. Kinda puts the customer back on its throne doesn't it?
As you can see the French were used to being left alone with the phones so SPAM probably bothered them a lot more than us North American people (who learnt to just deal with the BS). The CNIL also did research to quantify or at least qualify the cost associated with SPAM so it was easy to make it illegal with that predicate.
Eventually laws the CNIL helped pass (
allowed :
-Legitimacy of the processing: no electronic mailing without consent
-Prior information: no collection without the persons' knowledge Thanks to the CNIL and laws they helped create your phone number in France can be listed on one of three different lists. The French love color codes so here they are : Thanks to the CNIL and laws they helped create your phone number in France can be listed on one of three different lists. The French love color codes so here they are :
-Right to object: possibility to object to the collection of one's e-mail address for direct marketing purposes
Any company or individual that breaks the law can have between 3 to 5 years of jail and/or ~50 000/400 000$USD fine. Today it is well known that you should not spam and people do not do it.
Because the laws are severe and the fines help pay for the investigation/judicial costs the goverment is more inclined to pursue. Though it would be technically possible for someone to spam using routing masquerading a little investigation can be done with a court order and
cui bono logic. If spam is sent which promotes toothpaste you can be pretty sure that it isn't a compagny trying to sell used tires.
It is relatively easy to find the source of the spam if you put your mind to it. With court orders cops are allowed to invesigate where and whom bought what. Large quantities of viagra promoted in a spammed manner can probably with a little ingenuity be traced back, if not with Internet tools at least with some form of logic that police investigation already has experience with. If the fines are hefty enough then there are no problems paying for the cops and the judicial/penal system. This is something France understood and we could probably apply.
Oh yeah on another note France is part of the EU. The country where the services were provided is where the laws prevail. So if it is illegal to send spam in France and you are in England (where it is legal) you cannot spam French emails without facing charges in France.
The two countries work together to extradite criminals. All North American countries already work things out like that as well as many NATO countries. So murdering someone in another country is *usually* dealt with by international laws. If SPAM is illegal in one country it falls under the umbrella of international laws and people can in most cases be prosecuted (I know the system is not perfect but in a majority of cases things work out to be alright).
I hope this gives a good explanation of the French anti-spam laws and how it works. French people are usually more vocal when a problem arises than us in NA. Maybe there are a few things we can learn from our cousins across the antlantic.
dkediger,
I disagree that perpetrators cannot be charged. Most SPAMS sell something otherwise how would they make money? SPAMS usually link to a web site or a mail order form. Otherwise how would they make money?
Cui bono investigation allows police to catch almost any SPAM culprit in France and the risk of getting caught far outweighs the benefit of spammers. Thus legislation can be effective against spammers.
Saying that we will move them into organized mafia terrorist is ludicrous. They have to sell something to make money and to do that they have to show us how to give them money.
Gary
Haran
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