Ban the Spam?

Sydney, Wednesday 25 June, 2003 - messagecare, an email spam filtering company formed by Internet pioneer and OzEmail founder, Sean Howard, today announced its full support and sponsorship of the Internet Industry Association's (IIA) Spam Summit to be held at Parliament House tomorrow, Thursday 26 June.

The IIA Spam Summit will bring together Internet leaders to discuss and prepare advice to the Government on implementing anti-spam legislation in Australia. Senators' Richard Alston, Kate Lundy and Brian Greig will also address the Summit.

"Spam is the single biggest threat to email," declared Andrew Kent, messagecare CEO. At messagecare, we are not only committed to preserving the viability of email communication but also committed to helping shape what legal actions can be taken against those individuals relentlessly abusing it."

Mr Kent commented further, "The IIA Spam Summit is a significant step forward in the right direction. I am delighted that messagecare and other industry players have been invited to collaboratively discuss recommendations for a workable and effective legislative framework for spam in this country."

"As an industry group, we must identify how we can protect Australians, including our young, from the millions and millions of unsolicited and often pornographic offers that reach Australian mailboxes every day."

"Spam is no small problem - today, our spam filtering service, SpamTrap is rejecting over 50% of our customers email as spam. While filtering services like SpamTrap relieve the user's mailbox of this unwanted junk, we believe the war against spam will only be won through combining strong regulatory action, user-education programs, international cooperation and technology solutions," added Mr Kent.

"Penalties are an important consideration for the Spam Summit. Spam perpetrators, in this country, caught soliciting and peddling their services to unsuspecting email users should be called to account - and with strict penalties, where appropriate."

"I believe the Spam Summit represents an opportunity for industry to debate the key issues and develop a framework for spam legislation in Australia. There are many open questions that need answering and I am confident, as an industry group, we will reach consensus on appropriate legislative framework to help ban spam in this country, as well as ensure Australia is regarded as a good global Internet citizen and retain email as a viable medium," concluded Mr Kent.