[SpamCop-List] Re: New UK spam law a waste of time

[John J. Burness]

Michael Lefevre wrote:

> John J. Burness wrote:
> 
>>Reg Flobert wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>>Two weeks later I got a reply. They had given my email address to the
>>>spammer and asked him to remove it from his list. They had also "reminded
>>>him of his obligations" under the new regulations.
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>Sounds like you need to make an Official Complaint to the Information 
>>Commisioner about breach of the Data Protection act!!
> 
> 
> Depends how Reg filled in the form.  The form says that they may pass your
> information to the sender of the message in question, unless you
> explicitly indicated that you do not wish a particular piece of
> information to be given to the sender.
> 
> If Reg clearly indicated they shouldn't mention his email address to the
> sender and they did that anyway, then you have grounds to complain (don't
> complain about a breach of the DPA though, just complain that they didn't
> handle your complaint properly - the procedure for doing so is on their
> website)
> 
> Generally it is all a bit of a waste of time though - the £5000 fine is a
> possibility at the end of a long process if the spamming organisation
> fails to change its behaviour after a series of warnings and stuff, it's
> not a "spot fine" that they'll be asked to pay each time they screw up.
> 


I read Reg's post that he had indicated that he didn't want his info 
passed to the spammer!!

However, the *bottom-line* is that the new Law really doesn't work!!

At the best it is going to deter the "accidental" spammers (i.e. the 
Firm's that haven't really got a clue what they are doing), but it is 
going to have absolutely NO affect for the *real* spammers.

Regards,
John