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Aussie Business Fined for Spam

The first company to be convicted under Australia's tough anti-spamming laws was fined Friday 5.5 million Australian dollars for sending 280 million advertising e-mails.

The Federal Court fined Clarity1 Pty Ltd, based in the west coast city of Perth, $3.4 million and its director Wayne Mansfield $760,000 for sending unsolicited e-mails advertising seminars and other products.

The business had sent 280 million spam e-mails of which about 74 million were successfully delivered over two years. The court also banned Clarity1 from sending unsolicited e-mails in the future.

Australia has some of the toughest laws in the world against spamming, the notoriously hard-to-stop practice of flooding as many e-mail inboxes as possible with unwanted advertising messages.

Under Australia's Spam Act of 2003, it is illegal for Australian residents to be involved in the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mails, even if they are generated from outside the country.

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