Sponsor's Message

Since the Gulf War, the political gap between NZ and Oz seems to have broadened a bit -- but let's hope that our MPs are going to look closely at the proposed anti-spam measures being mooted by Australia.

And it's not just Australia that's priming its legal cannons to despatch evil spammers and their customers.

US legislators are also addressing the spam problem with renewed enthusiasm.

But will making spam illegal actually have any effect?

So long as countries act in concert, I believe it will.

The vast majority of spam I get these days is promoting US-based businesses who are trying to flog me porn, miniature digital cameras, dating agencies and cheap loans.

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Hey -- I see a business opportunity here! Sign up to find an attractive woman, take nudie pictures of her with my new mini-digital camera and start my own porn site :-)

But seriously, all these vendors use spam to (mis)market their products because, although it may be damned infuriating, and a huge cost to recipients and ISPs, it's not yet illegal in many jurisdictions.

If we pass laws making it illegal both to send spam and to hire spammers to do so on your behalf then we're part way to solving the problem.

Obviously such a move wouldn't stop the hard-core spammers who have porno sites located in a country which is not party to such legislation -- but it wouldn't take long for those flogging fake viagra, cheap mortgages and other easily traced wares to feel the law's savage sting.

Without any anti-spam legislation, won't New Zealand risk becoming a haven for spammers -- one of the few countries in the Western World where you can spam without infringing the law? Do we really want that?

Even if they don't locate themselves here, you can bet your bottom dollar that .nz addresses will stay on every spam list in the world, even if .au, .uk and .com ones are removed for fear of prosecution.

If the NZ government is really serious about improving the productivity of our business sector -- why don't they do some research to find out just how much time/money is wasted by NZ businesses each day as they wade through the tide of spam that has arrived in their mailboxes overnight?

And while I'm ranting and raving about the sorry performance being exhibited by the government in this area, let me get right off-topic and ask this question:

Right now we have cancer patients who are waiting over three months to get critical radiotherapy following surgery. This is reportedly because we don't have enough qualified radiologists. Apparently, despite the government pouring more money into this area, we're still not offering these skilled workers wage parity with other countries -- so they're disappearing offshore.

Well my question to readers is: Why is it that we see people waiting outrageous lengths of time for life-saving treatment through lack of funding -- yet I've never once seen a serving or ex-MP turned away from an airport check-in counter because the government hasn't got enough money to pay for their "travel-perks" in the form of subsidised (international) air travel?

Food for thought?

It's your tax dollars being (mis)spent -- which use do you think is more important?

And of course if any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say.

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