UNSOLICITED ELECTRONIC MESSAGES
ORDINANCE
(3) A person who knowingly contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine of $1,000,000 and to imprisonment for 5 years.
(4) It is a defence to a charge for an offence under subsection (2) for the person charged to prove that he did not know and had no reason to suspect that the electronic address was obtained using an automated means.
(5) It is a defence to a charge for an offence under subsection (2) for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.
(6) In this section—
“automated means” (自動化方法) means an automated process that generates possible electronic addresses by combining letters, characters, numbers or symbols into numerous permutations;
“obtained” (取得), in relation to an electronic address, means obtained, whether before or after the commencement of this section, by—
- (a) the person charged; or
- (b) any person from or through whom the person charged acquired the electronic address.
19. Use of scripts or other automated means to register for 5 or more electronic mail addresses
(1) No person shall use scripts or other automated means to register for 5 or more electronic mail addresses from which to send, or enable another person to send, multiple commercial electronic messages that have a Hong Kong link without the consent of the registered users of the electronic addresses to which they are sent.
(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 6 and to imprisonment for 2 years.
(3) A person who knowingly contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine of $1,000,000 and to imprisonment for 5 years.
(4) Subsection (1) does not apply to—
- (a) a person who performs functions in connection with the administration of the information systems of an organization, when performing such functions; or
- (b) a telecommunications service provider, when acting in connection with the provision of a public telecommunications service.
(5) In this section—
