Outlook is illegal in China

Unlicensed email servers will be attributed to being outlawed in China, according to new rules.

Source: AFP

China has just announced a new law, stipulating that an unlicensed email server is illegal. In two weeks, when this law starts to take effect, the vast majority of companies operating their own email servers in China will be . illegal.

According to market research firms, only more than 600,000 servers were sold last year in China. It is not clear how many of these are used for the purpose of operating server mail software such as Outlook Server, Sendmail, Qmail or Lotus Notes.

This email server licensing rule is only a small part of the anti-spam law drafted by the Chinese Ministry of Information. And it seems that its "bitter" harm to corporate email servers (the vast majority of companies with more than 10 employees use this server) is not known by law.

In addition, the new Chinese law also prohibits the use of email to discuss some sensitive topics. E-mails containing content that is contrary to current law cannot be copied or forwarded.

In the past few years, the problem of spam has become a headache in China. Spam has cost the country at least $ 760 million (in terms of labor productivity) last year, according to Chinese Internet Society estimates. But on the other hand, China is also one of the sources of global spam, when one-fifth of the world's total spam is sent or forwarded through computers located in the country.

Under the new rules, every organization or individual acting as an ESP (email service provider) needs a license to use Value-added telecommunication services. However, non-profit organizations will be exempt from registration.

The ESP will have to register the mail server's IP address with the authorities within 20 days of starting the server operation. They also have to keep a record of all email sent and received within 60 days.

Many techniques that spammers often use to attack a server to use a zombie computer as a spam relay point are also prohibited. The promotional emails will have to fill in the Subject line with a mandatory prefix "Ad" or "AD", and not be allowed to send to the user without a request from themselves.

Thien Y