In similar news today: Telemarketer hit with $500,000 CRTC fine. Good to see that they are pursuing these major cases and forcing fixes. Still, I didn't sign up for the Do Not Call specifically because I believed it would increase my junk mail calls - never can trust the bad guys.
It wont have an immediate affect. What it will do is enable people to sue spammers that they couldn't previously sue. This may have a good long term affect. Not just for Canada but for the World in general.
Administrative monetary penalties can be as high as $1 million per violation for individuals, and $10 million per violation for organizations. FISA also includes provisions for a private right of action that allows any person to seek damages in court resulting from a violation of the law.
(Still too long? Let's just call the Canadian law CAN'T SPAM.)
There are three tests, any of which will allow unsolicited commercial email.
• Existing relationship between sender and recipient. (purchase, contract, donor, volunteer, member)
• The recipient prominently publishes their email address and the mail is related to the recipient's professional capacity.
• Recipient signed up for it.
The law and its enforcement will begin to be explained in January.
[1] http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?La... the meat is in section 6, but notice it is written in an "exception" model. It seems a little insane until you get to the end of the section and catch the exceptions.