Roundup: Singapore legislates to curb spamming

Singapore, which enjoys one of the most advanced electronic networks, has in recent weeks taken measures to address the growing problem of spam.

Under a new law named the Spam Control Bill passed by Singapore 's Parliament recently, businessmen in Singapore who want to send e-mail and short messages to customers should have to tag "ADV" label, for advertisement, and contain functional contact details of the sender, as well as a valid unsubscribe facility on the messages.

Both email, short message service (SMS) messages and multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages are covered by the bill, which sets out basic requirements for legitimate direct electronic mass marketing, and provides civil recourse for any affected persons against spam with a Singapore link.

The bill defines spam as electronic messages sent more than 100 times with the same or similar subject-matter during a 24-hour period, or more than 1,000 times during a 30-day period or more than 10,000 times during a one-year period.

All senders must tag "ADV" on their e-messages, so recipients can decide whether to open them. The bill also makes it mandatory for senders to contain email address or phone number on their messages for recipients to unsubscribe.

When recipients unsubscribe, the businesses have to stop sending the messages within 10 business day and can not charge for the service.

In another word, users who do not want to continue receiving spam must unsubscribe.

This "opt-out" process worried some Members of Parliament. During the debate in Parliament recently, some MPs said it would " unwittingly legislate spam" as consumers did not have to agree to receiving the messages. Some MPs pointed out that many users were afraid to reply to spam as it simply told the senders that their email accounts were active.

But Lee Boon Yang, Singapore's Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, said the bill not only balances the needs of businessmen to send marketing materials to customers, but also configures the "opt-out" process to be as consumer-friendly as possible.

If the spam causes individuals and companies loss or damage, they can sue the sender, seeking an injunction, or statutory damages of up to 25 Singapore dollars (about 16 U.S. dollars) per message, up to 1 million Singapore dollars (about 658,000 U.S. dollars) for all. Individuals can also choose to sue for actual damages if they can prove greater loss. But the bill does not make spamming a criminal offense.

Lee explained that spammers generally don't act with malicious intent, furthermore, in the international best practices, no other jurisdictions have criminalized act of spamming per se.

He added that in Singapore, spam sent with a fraudulent or malicious component is criminalized under the two existing laws, namely the Computer Misuse Act and the Telecommunications Act, so spam control bill should not be viewed in isolation but an addition to total legislative framework against technological abuses.

In addition, public emergency messages sent out in times of crises will be exempt from the bill.

Furthermore, the minister pointed out that the bill sends a strong signal to the world.

"My ministry is not only acting to deter international spammers from exploiting Singapore's world-class telecommunications infrastructure as a base for spamming, but we are also stating clearly that we are ready to address the global problem of spam with other infocomm nations of the world," he said.

A study conducted by the Singapore InfoComm Development Authority in 2003 found that four in five spam messages received here originate overseas.

The minister also acknowledged that the bill is "not a magic bullet to eradicate all spamming activities overnight."

So some MPs suggested that public education, industry self- regulation and cooperation among countries were also important in fighting the global problem of spam.

Singapore has one of the highest mobile and computer penetration rates in the world. The mobile penetration rate has hit more than 95 percent, while three in every four households in Singapore will be on broadband by year's end.

The above-mentioned study also found that email spam caused losses of some 23 million Singapore dollars (about 15 million U.S. dollars) in productivity for Singapore users, and email users continued to cite spam as their most important concern after computer viruses.

Source: Xinhua