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Update: see below.

A long time ago we posted on the passage of Canada’s new Anti-Spam and Anti-Spyware law, unhelpfully called the “Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act” (we will be handing out “Fighting Internet” t-shirts and mugs in the new year). Broadly, the law prohibits the sending of commercial messages and the installation of computer programs without consent.

In March of this year, the CRTC, which has regulatory authority over the new law, registered regulations and then a related policy. More recently, in two bulletins (first here and second here) released in October the CRTC has published guidance on complying with the new law.

The date on which all of this comes into force has not yet been announced, but it’s expected soon. The second bulletin may attract controversy – it suggests that even where the user has to manually indicate consent, a default setting of consent is not permitted, and that third party or audio recording verification of oral consent is required – David Elder of Stikeman’s has an overview here.

As we noted some time ago, we save articles and commentary about this law under this tag. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Update: Barry Sookman has an update. In a nutshell, it while be a while yet, and more is coming.