The Office of the Telecom Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong issued a consultation paper titled "Proposals to contain the problem of unsolicited electronic messaging" (June 25, 2004). On October 25, 2004, Outblaze issued a formal response and recommendations to OFTA.

The Outblaze response is endorsed and approved by the Asia Pacific Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (APCAUCE), and highlights a number of issues that have in the past been the target of considerable equivocation and inveiglement; chief among these issues is the debate between opt-in and opt-out approaches to email marketing. This debate has resulted in legislation of questionable effectiveness, such as the opt-out based CAN-SPAM in the US, as well as more effective opt-in based laws in a number of other countries. In the interest of aiding the global fight against spam, we wish to make available our comments to OFTA beyond the borders of Hong Kong.

Click here to view the Outblaze response (PDF)

The original OFTA consultation paper may be found at:
http://www.ofta.gov.hk/report-paper-guide/paper/consultation/20040625.pdf

Summary
Outblaze concludes that an effective strategy against spam must mandate:

• opt-in standards
• prompt removal of spammers and hacked or insecure systems
• adoption of authenticated email schemes
• unequivocal anti-spam legislation
• rapid response times at ISPs
• diffusion of better email marketing management techniques

Outblaze Ltd.
Outblaze operates over 35 million active email accounts for a variety of public and private clients from all over the globe. The Outblaze service suite includes Outblaze Sentry Anti-spam, which is currently among the largest deployments of anti-spam solutions for messaging systems anywhere. On email operation and anti-spam measures, Outblaze is able to speak from a position of considerable experience.

Questions? Please write to pr@outblaze.com