China has introduced regulations that make it illegal to run an email server without a licence. The new rules, which came into force two weeks ago, mean that most companies running their own email servers in China are now breaking the law.
More than 600,000 servers were sold in China last year, according to market researchers. It's unclear how many of these are running mail server software, which includes programs like Microsoft Exchange Server, Sendmail, Qmail or Lotus Notes.
The new email licensing clause is just a small part of a new anti-spam law formulated by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The chilling effect on corporate email servers, which are commonly used by companies with more than a handful of employees, appears to have gone unnoticed until now.
However, Singapore-based technology consultant, James Seng, who first drew attention to the new email licence requirement, believes the inclusion of the prohibition on mail servers is no accident.
“Looking at the Chinese text, it is clear they have worded it carefully”, he told vnnet, “They know exactly what they are doing and what they want. So this isn't a case of clueless civil servants screwing up or just bad translation.”
Seng, a former assistant director of Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority, is a co-holder of several internet-related patents and the founder and former CTO of multilingual domain names company, i-DNS.
China's new rules also prohibit use of email to discuss certain vaguely defined subjects related to 'network security' and ' information security', and also reiterate that emails which contain content contrary to existing laws must not be copied or forwarded. Wide-ranging laws of this nature have been used against political and religous dissenters in the past.
“I believe that the intent to have an antispam regulation was a good one,” Seng says, “Unfortunately, it seems like during the policy formulation process, it got hijacked and went to one extreme."
China has been troubled by a growing junk email problem during the past few years. Spam cost the country at least $760m in lost productivity last year, according to estimates from the Internet Society of China (ISC). China is also a major source of global junk mail, with one fifth of all the spam received worldwide being sent from or relayed through computers in China.
According to the ISC's translation of the MII's new anti-spam regulations, organisations or individuals acting as so-called 'Email Services Providers' (ESPs) now need a 'License for value-added telecommunication services'. There appears to be an exemption for registered non-profit organizations.
In the past, telecommunications-related licences have been difficult to obtain in China, particularly for foreign-controlled companies, because of the government's security concerns.
“It is probably like all new licences,” Seng believes, “it will take a while before anyone knows what's the procedure. I suspect people are likely to ignore it for now - until the government enforces it.”
Under the new regulations, Email Service Providers must register their mail servers' internet protocol (IP) addresses with authorities 20 days before they start operating the server. The must also keep a record of all emails sent and received for 60 days. The rules even prohibit open relays: mail servers which accept and relay email from any source without verification
The regulations also ban many of the techniques commonly used by spammers, such as hijacking servers to use as 'zombie' spam relays. In addition, advertisers sending unsolicited commercial mail also need to prefix the subject line with 'Advertisement' or 'AD', and comply with recipients' requests to cease sending them unwanted email.
Do you agree?
No government please.
I just hope the government doesn't get involved. I think we have already lost alot of free speech. We don't need the govenrment telling us if we add a link to a comment it's "comment spam" and you're going away for 10 years! I believe this is how police states are created. There has to be a way without involving the government. It's really no good ayways becasue the spammers just go offshore. Economically not good becasue advertising dollar go to other countries.
Francisco Barcenas
Just my 2 cents.
Free and OpenMLS or Mexico
Posted by openmls, 24 Apr 2006
I wonder if this will end up being enforced?
The Chinese government often mentions its intent to do something like this, but then backs down quickly if society rebels. It will be very interesting to see what happens here.
www.chinalawblog.com
Posted by China Law Blog, 18 Apr 2006
Makes sense
What is this about Outlook? The article doesn't mention it at all.
I think this legislation, by and large, makes sense. First of all it is not 'all mailservers' - the article makes it sound like nobody is allowed to have mailservers, but it is actually only PUBLIC mailservers that require a license.
I particularly like the part about banning open relays, the rest of the world should do the same. The one thing that stands out as bad is the thing about not being allowed to discuss network and information sercurity; it is very difficult to filter effectively, and if the law is not very carefully thought through, it will be too easy to break the law unwittingly.
Posted by Jan Andersen, 15 Apr 2006
hmmm
it is normal.
http://www.runescapecoin.com
Posted by Adam, 19 Apr 2006
Less than meets the eye
I am an American living in China, where I own several related businesses and thus must deal continously with the Chinese authorities, so I know very well how the Chinese system works. We(westerners) say "Rule of law, not of men" The law is the law is the law. It must be enforced evenly, across the board, no exceptions. The Chinese take a different view. The law is enforced or not as seems appropreate. Thus we(in China)do not have cases, like in todays news,of old ladies getting J-walking tickets. They use the law sparingly, using it only when they must, not just because they can like one sees so often in the west. Don't get me wrong, I'm a loyal American. I love America. But what I see with my own eyes is that China is a much milder place than anywhere in the West. The "Law" is considerably more heavy-handed in America than in China. Here problems and disputes are solved by dialoge, discussion and a cup of tea rather than the courts. Laws, arrests, courts are only used at the end of a long process and only when all else fails. The Chinese are reasonable, practical, pragmatic and look for peaceful harmonous solutions. Except in the area of political dissention the
Chinese people are free as the breese to do as they like
Posted by bob burns, 15 Apr 2006
law
but how could they possible enforce it?
Posted by chris, 03 Mar 2007