I can ask Richard to speak more directly about what we learned from other countries and their experiences, but I think we were concerned that if we narrowed it too much, people would claim they were not doing direct marketing, but something else—the provision of information, or something else. You want to make sure you capture the behaviours that are clogging our e-mails and discouraging people from moving online. So we tried to restrict it to focus on the unsolicited and commercial activities, with a series of exemptions—which I don't think are tiny—laid out to try to make sure the legitimate businesses could continue, while actually putting a stop to the behaviours and practices slowing down electronic commerce.
On June 9th, 2009. See this statement in context.