Spam fight goes global

Six international groups involved in spam-fighting have joined forces on gathering information and resources. The StopSpamAlliance, launched on Tuesday, is designed to to encourage more global co-operation. The organizations involved are APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), the European Union's CNSA (contact network of spam-enforcement authorities), the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the London Action Plan, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam group, according to a posting on the alliance's Web site.

The StopSpamAlliance's Web pages link to antispam legislation and enforcement activities, to consumer and corporate education, to best practices for dealing with spam and to international co-operative efforts. The initiative was set up in line with a call from the World Summit on Information Society 2005 Tunis, which asked members to "deal effectively with the significant and growing problem posed by spam."

Tom Espiner reported for ZDNet UK in London.