Self-regulated spammers are like [comment with your own clever oxymoron]. Brazil, the #4 spammer, has chosen to "fight" its massive spam problem by letting so-called direct marketers implement their own spam reduction policies, no longer even threatening legal consequences.
Brazil has almost fourteen million Internet users, a spam powerhouse. Prolific spamming has long resulted in heavy blocking of Brazilian ISPs, frustrating users and the government. Under pressure, government leaders introduced legislation in 2002 and again in 2003, but nothing came of these proposals.
To ward off threatened dramatic legislation, an industry representative, the Antispam Brazilian Committee, proposed self-regulation to end the problems in November 2003. The code, though more specific details are scarce, requires opt-out provisions, advertiser identity disclosure, and truth-in-advertising standards. The code is based on a theory of general self-policing and adhesion to community norms by spammers. The Brazilian spam policy will accept complaints from users and will post a list of the worst offenders on a website, subject to no fines. This self-regulation solution seems to mean a slap on the wrist, the judgment of the upstanding Brazilian spammers, and maybe some help to the handful of spam filters which aren’t filtering these spammers yet. How did this happen? How did the threats of the government to shut down direct advertising dwindle into a pat on the back for a placebo plan?
Plans to stop incoming spam are somewhat more coherent. About 35% of incoming Brazilian e-mail is spam, but this estimate might be low. ISP and lower level filters seem to be widespread and increasing. The Brazilian CAUSE chapter has posted instructions on high level filters. Brazil has also started a open relay blocking project, based on the open relay database to try to stop spam from these relays. The FTC claims to have sent warnings to Brazilian ISPs vulnerable to spam relays.
For other countries, see the Spam Laws Worldwide Index.