Several countries and organizations are already taking action to improve
international cooperation in anti-spam activities at the technical or
regulatory level, fostering the exchange of information and best practices and
promoting a cooperative approach to the problem of unsolicited commercial
messages.
OECD Anti-Spam Toolkit
To support the development of an inclusive and coherent answer to the spam
issue, the OECD, through its ad hoc Spam Task Force, has launched an Anti-Spam
“Toolkit” as the first step in a broader initiative to help policy makers,
regulators and industry players orient their policies relating to spam solutions
and restore trust in the Internet and e-mail.
US FTC: Operation
Spam Zombies
The FTC and its partners announced “Operation Spam Zombies,” an
international campaign to educate Internet Service Providers and other Internet
connectivity providers about hijacked, or “zombie” computers that spammers
use to flood in-boxes here and abroad. Twenty members of the London Action Plan,
an international network combating spam, and 16 additional government agencies
who will participate in Operation Spam Zombies will send letters to more than
3,000 ISPs around the world, urging them to employ protective measures to
prevent their customers’ computers from being hijacked by spammers.
Seoul-Melbourne
Anti-Spam Agreement Enlarged
On 27 April 2005 twelve Asia-Pacific communications and Internet agencies
have joined the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Korean
Information Security Agency (KISA) in signing the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam
Agreement, a multilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in
countering spam.It said that the MoU is focused on sharing knowledge,
information and intelligence about known sources of spam, network
vulnerabilities, methods of spam propagation, and technical, education and
policy solutions to the spam problem.
Nineteen
French speaking African countries adopted a Declaration in the fight against
spam
On 30 March 2005 a declaration was adopted by the CAPTEF (Conférence des
administrations des postes et des télécommunications d'expression française )
Member States, recognizing the importance of the fight against spam.The final
declaration emphasizes the collection of national contacts responsible for
different areas in the fight against spam, which is to be disseminated to
international organizations (OECD, ITU, etc.), and the reinforcement of
cooperation and international coordination for sharing information on
legislation, specific country needs, and anti-spam technologies.
Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Enforcement
Assistance in Commercial Email Matters between the Federal Trade Commission of
the United States of America and the Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de
Datos. The Federal Trade Commission and Spain's Agencia Espanola de
Proteccion de Datos (AEDP) was signed on 24 February 2005 a bilateral Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) to promote enhanced cooperation and information-sharing
on spam enforcement activities.The text of the document
is currently available on the
FTC website. EU and Asia unite against 'spam'
A joint drive to combat 'spam' e-mail from Europe and Asia was agreed by
Government participants attending an Asia-Europe (ASEM) conference on eCommerce,
held in London on 21-22 February 2005. In a joint statement on international
anti-spam cooperation was signed on 24 febraury 2005, ASEM's 25 European and 13
Asian member countries agreed to take action to fight spam nationally and to
promote anti-spam efforts in international organizations and by industry.
European
countries launch joint drive to combat "spam"
'Anti-spam' enforcement authorities in 13 European countries have agreed to
share information and pursue complaints across borders in a pan-European drive
to combat "spam" electronic mail. They will cooperate in investigating
complaints about cross-border spam from anywhere within the EU, so as to make it
easier to identify and prosecute spammers anywhere in Europe. The voluntary
agreement was signed on 27 January 2005.It establishes a common procedure for
handling cross-border complaints on spam, has been drawn up by the contact
network of spam enforcement authorities (CNSA), set up at the initiative of the
Commission following its Communication of January 2004. The CNSA facilitates the
sharing of information and best practices in enforcing anti-spam laws between
the national authorities of EU Member States and of the EEA. The
Cooperation procedure text is available online on the EU website.
Memorandum
of Understanding On Mutual Assistance In Consumer Protection Matters Between the
Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America and the Procuraduria
Federal Del Consumidor (Office of the Federal Attorney for Consumer Protection)
of the United Mexican States.
The Federal Trade Commission and Mexico's consumer protection agency, the
Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco), was signed on 27 January 2005 a
bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote enhanced cooperation in
the fight against cross-border fraud. This memorandum marks the first time the
FTC has signed a consumer protection MOU with a non-English-speaking nation. The
signing took place in Washington, DC. The MOU strengthens the close relationship
between the United States and Mexico and will facilitate greater law enforcement
coordination in consumer protection matters affecting both nations. This
memorandum is a "best efforts" agreement - it is not legally binding
and does not alter either country's existing consumer protection laws.
Seoul-Melbourne
Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Countering Spam -
The Australian Communication Authority
(ACA) and the Korea Information Security Agency
(KISA) are currently discussing, with relevant government organizations in
other Asia-Pacific countries, the conclusion of a broader anti-spam
agreement, which will be open to all interested national agencies. The proposed MoU builds on the pre-existing bilateral agreement between the two agencies,
signed in 2003. The text of the document is currently available on the ACA
website (RTF
or PDF
format). London Action Plan (LAP)
Communication and coordination between agencies to achieve
efficient cross-border enforcement of anti-spam laws, increased collaboration on
effective ways to bring spam cases against bulk mailers, and exchange of
information and best practices through regular conference calls, form the basis of the London
Action Plan (LAP) signed in London in October. The
LAP, sponsored by the UK's
Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the US
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is now gathering
signatories from about 15 countries. For more information about how to sign
up to the LAP, please contact Ms Esther Val
of the UK Office of Fair Trading.
European
Commission - Information society
The European Commission has launched a public
consultation, in the form of a questionnaire,
to assess progress on combating spam following the Communication on this issue
of January 2004, which identified relevant action for all interested parties. More
information on EU activities are available on the Information Society page on fighting
spam.
In October 2003, the European Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications
(2002/58/EC) came into force. With this directive, the sending of unsolicited
communications via e-mail, SMS or phone has become more rigidly regulated across
all European Union (EU) Member States.
A Memorandum of Understanding on mutual
enforcement assistance in commercial e-mail matters was signed in July
2004 by the US
Federal Trade Commission, the UK Office of Fair Trading, the UK Information
Commissioner, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the
United Kingdom, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and the
Australian Communication Authority).
Australia-Korea bilateral cooperation in the field of
spam: A Memorandum
of Understanding concerning cooperation in the regulation of spam has been
signed in October 2003 between the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA), the
Australian Communication Authority (ACA) and the Australian National Office for
the Information Economy. MoU
between Internet Society of China, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft and AOL (English
version
or HTML)
In the effort to develop a coordinated
approach to combat the problem of unsolicited commercial email - from a
technical perspective - the IETF's
Internet Research Task Force established
the Anti-Spam
Research Group, dedicated to developing a coordinated
approach to combat the problem of unsolicited commercial e-mail (see Summary
of ASRG Documents and Work for period of March - May 2003)
The Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) has started to work on spam, with the aim of
bringing together all the actors and fostering international co-operation in this
area. In July 2004, OECD Members set up a Task
Force to Coordinate Fight against Spam. The Task Force should start work in
Autumn 2004.
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