Law in the Information Society

As we enter into a dicussion of the regulation of spam in class today, it is interesting to note that the BNA Internet Law News digest for today contains four stories about regulating spam from around the world. One report is on the bill now before the Australian Senate; a second about a $3 million judgment against a spammer in California a third about a proposal to triple the fines against spammers in Korea; and the fourth about the refusal of a New Zealand regulatory agency to use general fair trade laws to launch an investigation against a spammer based in New Zealand. These stories demonstrate that there is a global awareness of spam as a problem, that there are a host of law/regulatory initiatives underway, but there appears to be considerable reason to doubt the efficacy of much of this regulatory intervention. Targeting the spammer does not seem to be working. It is interesting to note that in the New Zealand case, the complaint came from an ISP. Getting ISPs onside in fighting spam is very important, but if there are some rogue ISPs who are willing to flout Internet norms, then can law attack the problem?