Spammers Face Heavy Fines Under New Australian LawsSpammers Face Heavy Fines Under New Australian Laws

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- People convicted of sending junk E-mail advertisements and messages known as spam could be fined more than a million Australian dollars (US$660,000) under tough new laws passed by Parliament.

"This legislation will hit spammers and the techniques they use to bombard Australian consumers with unsolicited and often offensive electronic mail," Communications Minister Daryl Williams said in a statement after passage of the bill late Tuesday.

Williams said spam accounts for half of all worldwide E-mail, and it is expected to continue to grow.

The Spam Act 2003 will fine spammers up to A$1.1 million (US$800,000) a day for sending illegal messages. It also will outlaw software that "harvests" E-mail address lists from computers, and allow courts to recover financial gains made by spammers to compensate people who have suffered financial losses.

The laws come into effect early in the new year, and only tackle spam that originates in Australia.

Williams acknowledged it will not be a silver bullet against spam, but added it will enable Australia to seek international cooperation.

The Communication Department was now negotiating agreements with counterpart agencies in other countries, he said. An agreement to cooperate on fighting spam has already been inked between the Australian Communication Authority and the Korea Information Security Agency.

In October, the European Union introduced new digital privacy rules requiring companies to get consent before sending E-mail, tracking personal data on Web sites, or pinpointing callers' locations via satellite-linked mobile phones.

Most spam comes from the United States, where Congress is juggling several bills to fight it and several states have adopted laws to fine and jail senders of junk E-mail.