The present volume contains eleven national reports, together with a general report, on this major problem that is presently burdening and distorting communications through the Internet. Most of the reports were presented at the XVIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held at Utrecht, the Netherlands on July 19, 2006.
Among the broadly conceived legal responses the authors consider are the following:
- making spam illegal
- empowering the user to avoid and repel spam
- laws governing confidentiality of personal data
- application of "unfair competition" laws
- conscripting the service providers to block spam in its tracks through a variety of controls
The reports provide documentation and analysis of the various ways in which these approaches have been used, or can be used, in legislation and case law in a variety of national and international fora. Workers in all fields of communications, from technologists to legal practitioners and academics to administrative policymakers, will benefit enormously from these syntheses and insights