Industry committee  Well, it also affects your Hotmail account. Nowhere in the legislation does it say where your account is set up; it's whether or not you're accessing your e-mail in Canada. The jurisdictional link is that it's sent to you, and if it's the case that you're in Canada, then that's our jurisdiction.

Industry committee  Yes. We're still quite confident that what we have here is the right piece of legislation. The amendments that were brought forward are meant to address legitimate concerns brought forward by witnesses over the course of the committee hearings, but we still feel very comfortable that we have the most advanced anti-spam e-commerce protection legislation literally in the world.

Industry committee  That was the concern with the third party referral. To be completely honest, I didn't feel 100% comfortable with doing it, but that was my personal view. Understanding that it is a legitimate practice for a number of legitimate commercial entities out there, we did feel compelled to try to address it and to try to make it work within the legislation, without watering down the legislation.

Industry committee  Not necessarily. Any person, in legal terms, can institute a civil suit. It could be a person, but also a business, like Videotron, for example, which would sue those who do not comply with the new act.

Industry committee  No, the purpose of the bill is to protect networks as much as consumers, as well as small and medium-size businesses.

Industry committee  We're talking about, for example, about Bell, Videotron or any company that has a network. The network has a certain bandwidth. As Mr. Chong said, spam currently represents 90% of all traffic on those networks. So that's very costly for Videotron, Bell and Rogers. That spam is transmitted here through the information technology services of the House of Commons.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  I think the clause may be somewhat redundant insofar as the act only applies to commercial activity, and it would not be a regular course of business for a political party to engage in commercial activity.

Industry committee  That depends on the party's interpretation. If it's a party fund-raiser, then there's no profit, no commercial activity; it doesn't apply.

Industry committee  They aren't completely excluded. If they engage in commercial activities, the provision applies, but if they're involved in fund-raisers for the party or a charity, it doesn't apply.

Industry committee  A political party sends an e-mail to its members to organize a fund-raiser for the party. The idea is to organize a dinner—

Industry committee  That's correct. It's precisely for that reason that this is taken into account in subclause 10(6) of the bill, which concerns non-business relationships involving charities, political parties or religious groups.

Industry committee  If a political party wants to engage in electronic commerce, it must follow a process if, for example, it sends e-mails to its members in the context of a dinner. Subclause 10(6) of the bill states that, in the context of a relationship with a member of a party, that person can always send out e-mails to promote a dinner, sell t-shirts and so on.

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  No, purely and simply. If the party is not selling products, such as tickets for a dinner or t-shirts, but is conducting voting polls, it doesn't apply. That's not business.