Well it’s all happening in the anti-spam utopia of the Australian Government. They pushed through their new anti-spam legislation, which means, as of early 2004, it will be illegal to send commercial emails without the recipient’s prior consent, and an unsubscribe function. They’ve also banned email address ‘harvesting’ software.

But of course there’s an exemption – for POLITICANS! Yup, political parties (and churches and charities) are exempt. So politics, god and fundraising are ok spam topics. All the while little businesses around the country sweat over their email lists (you know how techno-literate they’ll be!) and the threat of a $1million fine for a breach.