This week, in Ireland a company "4's A Fortune Limited" has been found guilty of sending marketing messages to five mobile phones without the consent of subscribers in violation of Ireland's European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003. Though total of 1,65,000 messages were sent, but only five became subject of complaint.

The company used auto-diallers that used to hung-up after two rings and appear as a missed call on the subscriber's phone. On calling back, the subscribers were encouraged to avail of premium services. This action violated the said regulations, which set out restrictions on unsolicited direct marketing by phone, fax, automated calling systems, email, SMS and MMS.


Previous Decision:
In US, in the first week of April, in a landmark judgement, a spammer Jeremy Jaynes of the Raleigh (North Carolina) was sentenced to 9 years imprisionment... which made him the first person to be convicted for Spamming in US. He violated Virginia’s anti-spam statute by illegally flooding America Online accounts with tens of thousands of bulk e-mail advertisements.

Now the question arises is... when such harsh punishment is provided under US Laws. Does Indian IT Act provide against Spamming. It's a big NO. But that does not mean that no action can be taken against Spammers in India... as just last year, VSNL won a case against some spammer, where the action was taken under 'Law of Torts'.

Further, the draft of IT Act as made available on 29 August, 2005 by Department of Information Technology, still does not provide specifically for Spamming but it will be covered under some general provision.