Australians Can Spam Too

It's official, the new anti-spam legislation in Australia comes into effect on 11 April 2004.

Businesses which persist in sending spam will face penalties of up to $1.1 million for a single day of infringements.

The Act prohibits sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages that have an Australian link. This means commercial spam, sent by mobile phone or email, cannot originate from Australia and is not allowed to be sent to Australian addresses, no matter the point of origin.

The Power of Three

Communications Minister 'Rowdy' Williams (rowdy because he's so quiet), has apparently just discovered the government a few years ago devolved the authority to issue a fourth TV network licence to the Australian Broadcasting Authority - that's the statutory body charged with regulating and managing broadcast licences. The new licence would come available after 2006.

Except Rowdy doesn't trust them - they might actually issue the licence, which of course would make all sorts of very rich and powerful people (eg Kerry and Kerry) upset.

And the Australian says "Seven, Nine and Ten are expected to argue their obligations to broadcast Australian drama and children's TV programs should be reduced if they have new competition. "

They don't miss a beat - a statement like that achieves two objectives for the channels - continue to campaign to reduce their expenditure on (expensive) local content and substitute cheap American imports; and scare the government that they might do such a thing, and thus give the government grounds to yet again avoid shaking up the cosy relationships with the media magnates.

In the meantime the community loses out - we continue to have a reduced choice; competition is stiffled; and the existing main players pursue their 'cheap programming/high revenue' business model.

It's the BCC Field Stupid

Just had a circular come round by email, calling for papers for a conference. With 1054 people in the CC field. When oh when will people learn how to use the BCC field.

What We're About

I like this from CED Magazine, it sums up the attitude I think we have with the subscription publications I'm involved with:

"the interactive future needs three important legs: compelling content that the consumer is excited about; an efficient marketing and distribution system to make consumers aware of their options; and an underlying platform that delivers on the promise. And all of these need to come together at a price point that rewards the participants for their contributions, and that the consumer is willing to pay."