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• Spam
• Purpose and Scope of Discussion Paper
• Next Steps

Spam

1. Spam is the term now generally used to refer to unsolicited bulk messages, usually transmitted to a large number of recipients via electronic mediums such as email. They usually have a focus on promoting products, services or fraudulent schemes.

2. Major problems caused by spam are breaches of privacy and a lowering of user confidence, deceptive practices, illegal or offensive content such as pornography and scams, threats to network integrity and security, desired email getting blocked by anti-spam technologies, and the financial costs imposed on ISPs and users.

3. Due to the problems caused by spam and the continuing growth in the volume of spam, a number of governments around the world have enacted or are proposing legislation as one way of curbing spam growth. The New Zealand Government has signalled that legislation against spam may be an appropriate measure for New Zealand also.

Purpose and Scope of Discussion Paper

4. This discussion paper seeks to discuss and obtain feedback on the various policy issues which are raised when considering anti-spam legislation. The objective is to ensure that any anti-spam legislation enacted in New Zealand is an effective tool as part of a multi-pronged attack on spam.

5. The paper does not seek to consider content issues such as the sending of pornography over the Internet as these are dealt with under existing legislation. Its focus is rather on addressing the spam problem in general.

Next Steps

6. It is proposed that a joint Government/InternetNZ industry workshop will be held during the consultation period (mid-May-30 June 2004) as part of the consultation process.

7. Subsequent to the receipt of submissions, the Ministry of Economic Development, in conjunction with other Government departments, will be preparing a paper for submission to Cabinet on the proposed anti-spam legislation.

8. Views expressed in submissions will be taken into account in the policy development process. It is envisaged that a summary of views will be prepared and published on the Ministry's website.