At 11:12 7/03/03 +0000, Tom Thomson wrote:
> 3.4. The likely endgame for this behaviour is to force senders of
> unwanted bulk e-mail to stop lying about who they are, which is
> illegal in meatspace anyway
Why spoil what might otherwise be a fairly decent piece of work with a
blatantly nonsensical claim like this? In the UK, the only time I am
required to identify myself as the publisher of something is when I publish
election literature for a local, national, or European government election
(plus cases where an identity of the publisher is inherently part of the
publication, such as certain legal notices).
There is a difference between mere anonymity and actual misrepresentation
as to identity. Misrepresentation as to identity may constitute the torts
of deceit (if it causes damage to a person who relies on the
misrepresentation to their detriment), passing off (if it causes a person
to believe the product is being offered by an unrelated business), or
defamation (if it represents that another person or business is the
spammer). If done in trade or commerce, any misrepresentation, even an
inadvertent one, may be illegal without more under fair trading statutes.
If an intentional misrepresentation (that is, a deception) is made with the
intention of making a financial gain by that misrepresentation, it may be a
criminal offence under statutes supplementing the law of larceny. The use
of the domain name of another where the domain name reflects the holder's
trademark may be illegal under trademark statutes.
Some of these have even been successfully tested in relation to fraudulent
misidentification by spammers.
--
Troy Rollo Chairman, CAUBE.AU
asrg(_at_)troy(_dot_)rollo(_dot_)name Executive Director,
iCAUCE
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