Government Pro-Spam Bill

Kix

Nick Hillard brought this up on the IIU mail-list:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">There's a scary article in today's Irish Times aboiut the government's
pro-spam stance:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2001/0629/fin6.htm

This is very serious indeed. I haven't checked it out yet, but does anyone
know what the time-table for introduction of these measures are?

Nick</font>

Quite unpleasant.

LegacyUser

The approach sounds very similar to the stance adopted not too long ago by a certain company which supplies satellite TV around the country.

They increased their subscription to cover call-out costs to subscribers. However, if you chose to pay for a call-out instead, you had to let them know, otherwise you accepted the increase.

Mike

dahamsta

I presume you're referring to Chorus (who do cable, not satellite)? It's no secret, I wouldn't be worried about mentioning their name. Anyway, AFAIK the Opt-Out approach was dropped because there was uproar about it. We told 'em to stuff it anyway.

Kix, I think the timetable is mentioned in the article, something about it not going to a vote until September or something? Now's the time to talk to your TD about it though - this can't go through or we'll be flooded with spam, and the spammer won't give a damn because they'll be nice and legal. But you HAVE to talk to someone about it, because direct marketers are VERY good at lobbying. That's why the US situation is totally up in a heap on the issue, although at least they have the ACLU.

I'm tellin' ya, we're going backwards in this country.

adam

PS. Doesn't this belong in technology and or net/comms? Ok, our bandwidth will be affected by it, but it's stretching things a little.

Kix

Hi Adam,

Yeah, it was a toss up as to where to post it. I suppose my thinking is that the more "motivated" (?) net users on Boards read this forum & I didn't really want to cross post it. That would smell a bit of spam.

I know IrelandOffline are trying to concentrate their energies on net access issues and not spread themselves too thinly but with the relationship they are building with the ODTR and the minister, they are in a good position to make representations on issues such as this as well.

K

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Kix:

I know IrelandOffline are trying to concentrate their energies on net access issues and not spread themselves too thinly but with the relationship they are building with the ODTR and the minister, they are in a good position to make representations on issues such as this as well.

K</font>

I agree with you that this bill looks stupid, but I wouldn't like to see 'Ireland Offline' get distracted at this stage. It was stated that after achieving flat rate & broadband access they would effectively be disbanded.

jd

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by hmmm:
I agree with you that this bill looks stupid, but I wouldn't like to see 'Ireland Offline' get distracted at this stage. It was stated that after achieving flat rate & broadband access they would effectively be disbanded.

</font>

Do what I did-find the email address of your local tds,senators and meps, and email them voicing your objections
jd