The key issue is what data ISPs will be forced to either retain or preserve, and cost of recovery for that. Without an adequate cost recovery for both retention and retrieval of the information, ISPs will be open to open-ended requirements.

If the Council wins on data retention and the Parliament wins by allowing spam, then the only loser will be the customer -- twice over.

Permission-based marketing is the way forward.

There are 18 million businesses in Europe: do you contact each company individually? Is there one opt-out list? Are there competing opt-out lists? They simply don't know how this would work. It is fairly obvious that a global opt-off list won't work. It has already been a failure in the U.S.

I guess we're the lucky winners. It's unbelievable to watch his focus from that close. There could be a million people here, and it wouldn't matter.

They respond very aggressively when they perceive a threat that could be meaningful,