Quick spam shutdown by April 1

The Ministry of Information and Communication said yesterday that stricter measures against unsolicited commercial e-mail and phone calls would be coming at the end of the month. The new rules, it said, would give telecommunications companies and Internet service providers 24 hours to shut down offending spammers. Ministry officials met yesterday with major Internet site operators and telecommunications carriers to discuss implementing regulations for law changes approved in December to reduce the amount of junk mail and calls. It said the new rules would reflect the agreements reached in further negotiations with those groups. If requested by the ministry or the Korea Information Security Agency, carriers or Web sites would be required to deny further access to the offenders, mandating telephone and telecommunication operators to restrict spammers from service use within a day after they send the offending messages or make the phone calls. Web sites would have two days to identify spammer to authorities. Spammers face a maximum fine of 30 million won ($31,900). The new law also provides for a maximum sentence of one year in jail for spammers who try to disguise their identity in the course of sending unsolicited ads or other junk mail. by Seo Ji-eun