Anti-spam legislation ‘expected to come into force in spring 2010’: Industry Canada

The Conservative government is set to introduce anti-spam legislation Tuesday that the Industry Department says “is expected to come into force in spring 2010.” The government introduced Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, in the last session of Parliament, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications before it was killed due to a federal election. Industry Canada released its Business Plan 2010-2011 report this week, in which the department discusses activities to “support implementation of the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, which is expected to come into force in spring 2010.” The House of Commons notice paper for May 25 says anti-spam legislation will be introduced. The former Bill C-27 would have prohibited the installation of computer programs that could send electronic messages without user consent and forbid Canadians from sending commercial messages to any electronic addresses without receiver consent. The bill proposed implementing maximum fines of $1 million for individual offenders and $10 million for organizations. It remains unclear whether the C-27 legislation will be reintroduced with or without the 64 amendments made to it during the previous session of Parliament. The bill’s final version, sent to the Senate in December 2009, clarified that the law does not apply to correspondence requested by consumers, including quotes and estimates, or purchase confirmation, warranty and safety emails. Tom Copeland, chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), was a member of an anti-spam task force that made recommendations to the government in 2005. Copeland said it could be possible for the legislation to come into force by spring 2010. “When they first introduced it, there wasn’t much push back from the opposition,” Copeland told The Wire Report. “Unless something dramatic has changed, we certainly don’t anticipate that it will be slowed down in the House.” But Michael Geist, law professor and Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, sat on the same task force in 2005, and told The Wire Report in an email that he did not believe the short timeframe is very realistic. The Industry Canada report said the department’s Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Sector (SITT) is working with the CRTC, the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to establish a Spam Reporting Centre. Geist and Copeland said that the Spam Reporting Centre was part of their recommendations to the government in 2005. Copeland said that if the centre follows the recommendations, it would offer a place for people to report and forward any spam they receive in their inboxes, and serve as a repository for law enforcement to gather evidence and build cases against spammers and other online criminals. In the United States, a similar centre was established, dubbed “The Fridge.” “We jokingly dubbed our repository ‘The Freezer,’ given that we’re above the U.S. and above The Fridge,” Copeland said. He said law enforcement authorities in the U.S. have used the database for more than just spam-related cases. “Law enforcement down there was tapping it for national security reasons, stock fraud reasons, a whole bunch of criminal activity, not just unwanted email,” he said. Bernard Courtois, president and CEO of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), was also involved in the anti-spam consultations in 2005, and said that each government agency would play a role in the Spam Reporting Centre. “The Competition Bureau goes after misleading advertising,” Courtois said. “The CRTC is responsible for the use of the telecom networks, the do-not-call list and things like that, and there is the privacy commissioner, of course, because many of the problems with spam are breaches of the PIPEDA .” Courtois said the bill would do more than just fight spam if it remains similar to the previous version. “It goes after malware and it goes after unwanted downloads on people’s computers.” Copeland said the previous version of the bill had a public education component that should be maintained. “One of the best ways to combat spam is to educate people about the dangers of it, how to report it effectively, and what to report,” he said. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Anti-spam legislation ‘expected to come into force in spring 2010’: Industry Canada

News | May 21, 2010

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