China uses spam law to take over email providers

Staff: Simon Burns of vnunet reports that China’s new spam law hides a couple of disturbing details:

1. Email Service Providers must be licensed to operate, and;.
2. ESPs must keep copies of everyones’ mail for 2 months..

Those who submit then get the opportunity to negotiate China’s version of CAN-SPAM’s gauntlet, including “ADV” in commercial message Subject lines, stop sending on request, and no open relays or zombies.

The Chinese law doesn’t seem all that different from Western efforts… until you consider the way things really work today as the authoritarian country that birthed several of the world’s greatest civilizations marches to its new reality, as the Backgrounder that follows shows.

While some may blow off military hacking and virus building efforts as “everybody does it,” and a Mandarin version of the Internet Registry as China’s response to US pushiness… Chinese citizens actually go to jail simply for voicing opinions. And Western technologists help put them away.

One can only hope that Western apologists are right, for once. That would mean Chinese spam laws are no more dangerous to its citizens than, say, the EU’s.

Email Battles Backgrounder:

• China replaces Great Wall with language barrier; NewsByte; Email Battles; 01 March 2006.
• China 2006: #1 in spam output; NewsByte; Email Battles; 24 January 2006.
• SANS: Chinese military hacking US networks; NewsByte; Email Battles; 13 December 2005.
• Simply Red: China forces phone registration; NewsByte; Email Battles; 02 December 2005.
• Anxiety Mounts As China Builds Virus Troops; Email Battles; 16 July 2004.
• China Blocks Servers. Surprised?; Email Battles; 11 February 2004.

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