The OECD has published an anti-spam toolkit to help governments coordinate the global scourge of spam. There is an international patchwork of laws of varying effectiveness across the globe dealing with spam, but the global nature of cyberspace requires a global approach to enforcement. The OECD has provided its “Recommendation on Cross-Border Co-operation in the Enforcement of Laws against Spam”, that prompts governments to "ensure that their laws enable enforcement authorities to share information with other countries and do so more quickly and effectively". There are also recommendations that enforcement is beefed up and that people are better educated on the risks associated with spam and how to deal with them.
The OECD's aims are admirable, but it is not looking to eradicate spam altogether, merely to deal with it. As technology develops over time there will be more and more ways to produce spam. Over recent years, peer-to-peer and VOIP "spam" and the phenomenon of "splogging" have demonstrated this. It is unfortunate that some form of self-regulation has not been sufficient to deal with the problem and increasing government intervention is inevitable in order to enusre that the Internet is preserved as "a global facility available to the public" (as defined at the World Summit on the Information Society - WSIS Declaration of Principles).
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