29 September, 2004 Attention: IT reporter

Nandor: spam law should cover SPIT

Green MP, Nándor Tánczos today called for direct phone marketing to be included in proposed spam legislation.

"I recognise the reasons why phone and paper-mail advertising were initially left out of the legislation," said Nandor, the Green Party's Information Technology spokesperson. "However the rapid uptake of Voice-over IP (VOIP) is likely to mean the inundation of our phone lines by Spam over Internet Technology (SPIT)."

"With the ready availability of home phone numbers on the internet through online phone directories, it's easy for software to scan the net for numbers and make mass pre-recorded advertising calls.

"It's going to annoy the hell out of people to be subjected to this new kind of invasive and costly spam, and we're likely to see people stop listing their numbers in the phone book," Nandor said. "It would be a shame to lose an excellent contact directory system as a result of too little foresight.

"I will be approaching the Minister to suggest including phone marketing in the proposed spam legislation with an opt-in system, as preferred by the majority of submitters."

View for technical information on SPIT.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>