US-born anti-spam activism has taken root on its second new continent this month.
Less than two weeks after the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email inspired formation of a European branch, Australians have embraced the effort -- with a slight semantic twist.
The Aussies are calling their organization the Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk Email, or CAUBE. But their focus mirrors that of CAUCE: fighting junk email.
The volatile spam issue caught fire in Australia last December, when an industry group proposed relaxing its strong stance against the unsolicited commercial email. The group suspended those new rules just last week, but the incident underscored the need for a unified Aussie voice against spam, said Troy Rollo, the new group's chairman.
"Until the provisions were suspended on Thursday, Australia had the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world where there was an Internet Industry code of practice which guaranteed every potential advertiser at least one shot at your electronic mailbox," Rollo said in a statement.
US anti-spam crusaders said they were glad to see brethren popping up on yet another continent, and vowed continued support.
"CAUCE is pleased to have been of assistance to Australians opposed to junk email," said Scott Hazen Mueller, CAUCE chairman. "We will continue to communicate with the CAUBE.AU leadership and assist them as they address Australian regulatory and legislative issues relating to unwelcome and abusive email."
CAUCE bills itself as the world's largest Internet-based advocacy organization, with some 14,000 members.
