API plots to cut spam

Chile's Internet service providers association API aspires to cut the volume of locally produced spam by 80% this year, local daily El Mercurio reported. Spam currently represents 70% all messages received in Chile. API president Joel Bendersky, elected three weeks ago, said Chilean ISPs are defining a three-pronged strategy to attack spam: define what is spam, develop combat tactics and identify the relevant technical criteria for doing so. According to Chile's telecoms regulator Subtel, spam is any message "which is not requested, is sent en masse and sent reiteratively." The API's objective is to detect the origin of spam without undermining the free flow of information. Therefore the association is evaluating the possibility of establishing email verification systems, or following the example of the US where e-mail advertising is preceded by a warning. However, the measures will bear only a partial impact. Local measures applied to the problem will not extend to international email services such as Yahoo! Hotmail and Latinmail, which represent about 50% of the country's email addresses.