Text 10740, 46 rader
Skriven 2006-04-15 08:51:44 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Need license to run email server?
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@hotmail.com>

In China. Anti-Spam legislation hijacked by politics

http://www.isc.org.cn/20020417/ca346007.htm
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2154063/china-outlaws-outlook

China has introduced regulations that make it illegal to run an email server
without a licence. The new rules, which came into force two weeks ago, mean
that most companies running their own email servers in China are now breaking
the law.

More than 600,000 servers were sold in China last year, according to market
researchers. It's unclear how many of these are running mail server software,
which includes programs like Microsoft Outlook Server, Sendmail, Qmail or Lotus
Notes.

The new email licensing clause is just a small part of a new anti-spam law
formulated by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The chilling
effect on corporate email servers, which are commonly used by companies with
more than a handful of employees, appears to have gone unnoticed until now.

However, Singapore-based technology consultant, James Seng, who first drew
attention to the new email licence requirement, believes the inclusion of the
prohibition on mail servers is no accident.

"Looking at the Chinese text, it is clear they have worded it carefully", he
told vnnet, "They know exactly what they are doing and what they want. So this
isn't a case of clueless civil servants screwing up or just bad translation."

Seng, a former assistant director of Singapore's Infocomm Development
Authority, is a co-holder of several internet-related patents and the founder
and former CTO of multilingual domain names company, i-DNS.

China's new rules also prohibit use of email to discuss certain vaguely defined
subjects related to 'network security' and ' information security', and also
reiterate that emails which contain content contrary to existing laws must not
be copied or forwarded. Wide-ranging laws of this nature have been used against
political and religous dissenters in the past.

"I believe that the intent to have an antispam regulation was a good one," Seng
says, "Unfortunately, it seems like during the policy formulation process, it
got hijacked and went to one extreme."

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