A Bill to regulate Unsolicited Electronic Messages (UEMs) was tabled at the Legislative Council on July 12 and it is hoped the Bill will be passed during the next legislative year. The bill proposes an "opt-out" regime, whereby the sender of a commercial regulated message is required to provide a functional unsubscribe facility. The messages should also include accurate sender information, while their subject heading should not mislead recipients and number identification should not be concealed. Address harvesting software is also banned.
To support the opt-out regime, the bill will empower the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) to form "do-not-call registers" for recipients opting out of receiving further messages. The registers will initially cover pre-recorded voice or video messages, fax messages and SMS or MMS messages.
This falls short of the hopes of many anti-spam proponents, who would prefer an “opt-in” regime.
Also, the wording of the Bill has raised technical concerns; including that it may, inadvertently, ban DNS resolvers. The fear rises from the inclusion of “Internet Protocol address” in the definition of electronic message in the Bill. Coupled with the definition of “address harvesting software” as, “software that is specially designed or marketed for use for (a) searching the Internet or a public telecommunications network for electronic address and (b) collecting, compiling, capturing or otherwise obtaining those electronic addresses”, it is clear that DNS resolvers are covered by the restrictions on address harvesting software, which include supplying, acquiring, and using such software, “in connection with, or to facilitate, the sending of electronic messages…”. The possible punishment is a fine of $1 million, and 5 years jail – something to consider the next time you type in a domain name.