Anti-spam law

Lawyer Fiona Campbell gives advice in the Herald on Sunday on the new anti-spam legislation which comes into force on 5 September.

Fiona reminds us that the law applies to not just e-mail spam but text (SMS) and IM spam (or spim). By coincidence I just complained to Telecom this morning about text spam I was getting from 4162 that kept asking me to ask Zoltar a wish which would have then had me paying them $5 a message. I look forward to being able to prosecute such bastard scammers in the future.

The Department of Internal Affairs is the agency with enforcement powers under the Act, and for the last few months have been establishing and hiring staff for the unit. I’ve been on the steering committee (in my InternetNZ role) overseeing this, and have been really impressed with how they operate, putting together project plans, comms plans, risk registers, IT requirements for the new unit. It’s been extremely well managed. A big focus in upcoming months will be on education and outreach – especially to businesses to explain how the Act works.

My only disappointment is that ritual dismemberment is not on the list of available penalties for spammers.