日本：传播电脑病毒和垃圾邮件视为犯罪

　　It's one of the most annoying things about the internet - hundreds of emails from bizarre companies flooding inboxes。

　　But now officials in Japan have banned spam in a desperate bid to crackdown on the practice。

　　The country has been flooded with cyberattacks on a series ofgovernment offices, corporations and individuals in recent years。

　　Authorities have struggled to tackle the growing problem without any concrete law allowing them to track down offenders。

　　The new law criminalising the creation or distribution of computerviruses and spam emails was passed in Japanese parliament last Friday。

　　Distributing a computer virus now could now carry a three year jail sentence or a fine of 500,000 yen (￡3,850)。

　　The acquisition or storage of a virus is punishable by up to two years in prison or 300,000 yen (￡2,300) in fines。

　　Sending e-mail messages containing pornography to a random number of people is also now illegal。

　　But critics of the new law suggest that it is too harsh and couldbreach privacy requirements guaranteeing the confidentiality ofcommunications。

　　The law will allow data to be seized or copied from computer servers that are connected to people who are being investigated。

　　It would also enable authorities to force Internet service providers to keep communications logs for up to 60 days。

　　The move could have wide-reaching implications for governmentsaround the world as they seek to impose tighter regulation online。

　　Governments are expected to look to Japan to see how well the regulation works。

　　上网最让人恼火的事莫过于五花八门的公司发来的几百封电子邮件塞满了邮箱。

　　为了彻底打击这种行为，日本近日颁布法规，禁止发送垃圾邮件。

　　近年来，日本很多政府部门、公司、个人都曾遭受大规模的网络攻击。

　　相关部门已尽力处理日益增长的类似问题，但此前并没有明确的法规允许他们追捕网络攻击案件的罪犯。

　　根据上周五日本国会通过的一项新法律，制造传播电脑病毒、或发送垃圾邮件都将面临法律制裁。

　　传播电脑病毒将面临三年监禁、或50万日元(合3850英镑)罚款。

　　获取或储存病毒也将受罚，被判处最多两年监禁、或处以30万日元(合2300英镑)罚款。

　　此外，随机向别人发送包含色情信息的电子邮件，也将被视作犯罪。

　　但批评人士认为，该法律过于苛刻，可能违反了人们的隐私权。公民隐私权确保了通信的保密性。

　　新法律允许从电脑服务器中截留或复制被调查用户的信息数据。

　　根据新法律，相关部门还可以要求网络服务供应商保留网络通讯记录60天。

　　日本此举对全球政府有广泛深远的影响，各国政府正在寻求出台更严厉的网络法规。

　　世界各国对日本新法的效果拭目以待。