[Ecommerce] ILPF-GBDe Spam Workshop, June 18th

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	ILPF-GBDe Spam Workshop, June 18th
Date: 	Fri, 27 Jun 2003 09:05:42 -0400
From: 	Philippa Lawson <plawson@piac.ca>
To: 	love@cptech.org



Jamie - please feel free to post as you wish. (I just heard from ILPF
that they will be posting the docs online.)
Pippa

This is a quick briefing on a one-day workshop on Spam that I attended
on June 18th in Ottawa on behalf of PIAC and Consumers International. It
was organized by the ILPF and GBDe, and attended by about 50 experts
from ISPs, marketing industry, internet consultants, anti-spam
activitist, goverment, etc. Because of the high level of expertise, it
proved to be a very useful session (I learned a lot - especially about
the technology).

The ILPF has compiled a good set of materials on spam, including:
- list of different definitions of spam
- international spam law survey
- international spam caselaw digest
- list of projects and working groups on spam
- compendium of Internet Acceptable Use Policies

They will be posting this material, along with a summary of the
workshop, on the ILPF website shortly.

A few points:

1. Generally speaking, there is a tremendous amount of common interest
in reducing spam. ISPs, legitimate marketers, and those interested in
making e-commerce work seem to be genuinely concerned about the growing
problem, and want to take measures to stem the flow. More than any other
issue we have been dealing with, I think that this is one on which we
have a common interest with most of our colleagues. Despite being the
only consumer representative there, I found that others were making the
very points that I wanted to make, for example about:
- the link between consumer privacy and spam,
- the problem being not just deceptive emails but also quantity of
marketing emails, including non-deceptive,
- the need to find solutions that don't download all the effort/expense
on consumers, etc.
HOWEVER, there remains a strong anti-regulation attitude on the part of
some ILPF/GBDe members, so they need to keep hearing from us.

2. ILPF/GBDe plan to keep working on this issue, with the goal of
developing policy recommendations. I told them that we would like to be
included/consulted as this work continues.

3. The ICC is studying the issue of "harmful spam" - i.e., only that
which is deceptive, aids ID theft, etc. They plan to revise their
Guidelines for Online Marketing in light of the results of this study.

4. Dmitri Ypsilanti of the OECD talked about how the OECD considers spam
a serious problem and is planning to address it via:
- an online discussion group, including civil society,
- a workshop in Brussels in January 2004, and later in Korea, and ultimately
- Guidelines on Spam.

IN BRIEF - having simmered for a long time, the issue of spam now seems
to have jumped up to high priority in the eyes of industry and
government. We can expect to see a lot of activity on it in the next few
years, and should make sure that our constituency is central in the
policy-making process.

Check the ILCP website in the next week or so (_www.ilpf.org_
<http://www.ilpf.org/>) for info on the workshop.

Pippa
Philippa Lawson, Senior Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
1204 - 1 Nicholas St.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 7B7
tel: 613-562-4002 x.24
fax: 613-562-0007
email: plawson@piac.ca
PIAC website: _http://www.piac.ca
_ <http://www.piac.ca/>