What the government tells us	What does it mean?
The Government calls it Canada's anti-spam law.	The word "spam" appears nowhere in the act!
The title of the act is: An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act (S.C. 2010, c. 23)	Does this mean that we can now trust the messages about a multi-million dollar Nigerian bank account whose owner is dead and we can get the money if we send our bank account details including password and maybe a couple of thousand dollars to grease the wheels?
Meaning of commercial electronic message (2) For the purposes of this Act, a commercial electronic message is an electronic message that, having regard to the content of the message, the hyperlinks in the message to content on a website or other database, or the contact information contained in the message, it would be reasonable to conclude has as its purpose, or one of its purposes, to encourage participation in a commercial activity, including an electronic message that (a) offers to purchase, sell, barter or lease a product, goods, a service, land or an interest or right in land; (b) offers to provide a business, investment or gaming opportunity; (c) advertises or promotes anything referred to in paragraph (a) or (b); or (d) promotes a person, including the public image of a person, as being a person who does anything referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (c), or who intends to do so.	The act applies to "commercial electronic messages" as defined by the Government. Everyone knows that "spam" means thousands or millions of identical messages sent to persons with no interest in the content. I can now break the law if I send one "commercial electronic message" to one person one time. Why does the Government tell us that is fighting "spam" when it is really fighting "commercial electronic messages"?
Purpose of Act 3. The purpose of this Act is to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating commercial conduct that discourages the use of electronic means to carry out commercial activities, because that conduct (a) impairs the availability, reliability, efficiency and optimal use of electronic means to carry out commercial activities; (b) imposes additional costs on businesses and consumers; (c) compromises privacy and the security of confidential information; and (d) undermines the confidence of Canadians in the use of electronic means of communication to carry out their commercial activities in Canada and abroad.	I send out a few hundred "commercial electronic messages" per year. These messages promote the sale of scientific instruments in Canada and abroad. The nuisance cost they cause is trivial compared to the jobs they create, the foreign exchange they earn and the income tax we pay. Now I have to read and understand the legislation and make sure that these messages comply.
Section 6 contains a bunch more offence	but I don't have time to respond.
Paraphrase of sections 6a and 6b A "commercial electronic message" must contain an unsubscribe mechanism	Do not hit the unsubscribe button! This is a Bonanza for real spammers. Thanks to Canada's "anti-spam" legislation their email lists are a lot more valuable. A email list of 10 million is worth maybe one cent each or a total of $100,000. Let's say that 20% of the recipients will hit the anti-spam button. This gives the spammer a shorter list of really hot prospects, people smart enough to use email and have a good job with disposable income and not smart enough to avoid the unsubscribe button. More money than brains as my dad used to say, the ideal sucker list. Now the list is 2 million but each email is worth ten cents for a total of $200,000. And these poor suckers will now get a lot more spam!
Burden of proof: 13. A person who alleges that they have consent to do an act that would otherwise be prohibited under any of sections 6 to 8 has the onus of proving it.	An added burden of record keeping to anyone sending even a few "commercial electronic messages".
4) The maximum penalty for a violation is $1,000,000 in the case of an individual, and $10,000,000 in the case of any other person.	Enough to scare anyone away from sending even a few "commercial electronic messages".
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