Measures for the Administration of Internet E-mail Services 2006

The “Measures for the Administration of Internet E-mail Services”, which were deliberated and adopted at the 15th executive meeting of the Ministry of Information Industry of the People’s Republic of China on November 7, 2005, are hereby promulgated, and shall come into force on March 30, 2006.

Measures for the Administration of Internet E-mail Services

Article 1 The present Measures are formulated in accordance with the “Telecommunication Regulation of the People’s Republic of China”, the “Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services”, as well as other laws and administrative regulations for the purpose of regulating Internet e-mail services and safeguarding the lawful rights of Internet e-mail service users.

Article 2 The present Measures shall apply to the provision of Internet e-mail services within the territory of the People’s Republic of China as well as the provision of access services to Internet e-mail services and the transmission of Internet e-mails.

The term “Internet e-mail services” as mentioned in the present Measures shall refer to the activities of establishing Internet e-mail servers to provide conditions for Internet users to send and receive Internet e-mails.

Article 3 Citizens’ privacy of correspondence in using Internet e-mail services shall be protected by law. Unless the public security organ or procuratorial organ makes an inspection on the contents of correspondence pursuant to the procedures prescribed in law when required by national security or investigation of crimes, no organization or individual shall infringe upon any citizen’s privacy of correspondence on any pretext.

Article 4 Whoever intends to provide Internet e-mail services shall obtain the permit for operation of value-added telecommunication services in advance or lawfully perform the procedures for archival filing of non-operational Internet information services.

Without obtaining the permit for operation of value-added telecommunication services or without performing the procedures for archival filing of non-operational Internet information services, no organization or individual may provide Internet e-mail services within the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

Article 5 An Internet access service provider or any other telecommunication service provider shall not provide access services for an organization or individual who provides Internet e-mail services without obtaining the permit for operation of value-added telecommunication services or without performing the procedures for archival filing of non-operational Internet information services.

Article 6 The state practices registration-based administration to the IP addresses of the e-mail servers of Internet e-mail service providers. An Internet e-mail service provider shall, 20 days prior to the opening of the e-mail server, register the IP address of the Internet e-mail server in the Ministry of Information Industry of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “Ministry of Information Industry”) or the communication administrative bureau of the involved province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government (hereinafter referred to as “the communication administrative bureau”).

Where an Internet e-mail service provider intends to modify its e-mail server IP address, it shall go through the modification procedures 30 days in advance.

Article 7 An Internet e-mail service provider shall, according to the technical standards made by the Ministry of Information Industry, build up an Internet e-mail service system, close up the unnamed forwarding function of the e-mail server, strengthen the safety management of the e-mail service system, and shall, once finding any network safety leak, timely take safety protection measures.

Article 8 An Internet e-mail service provider shall, when providing users with services, clearly inform users of the contents of the services and rules for use.

Article 9 An Internet e-mail service provider shall have the obligations of keeping confidential the users’ personal registered information and Internet e-mail addresses.

An Internet e-mail service provider or any of its employees shall not illegally use any user’s personal registered information or Internet e-mail address; and shall not, without consent of the user, divulge the user’s personal registered information or Internet e-mail address, unless otherwise prescribed by any law or administrative regulation.

Article 10 An Internet e-mail service provider shall record the time of sending or receiving Internet e-mails it sends or receives via its e-mail server, the Internet e-mail addresses and IP addresses of the senders and recipients. The foregoing records shall be kept for 60 days, and shall be provided to the relevant state organ at the time of lawful inquiry.

Article 11 No organization or individual may make, reproduce, publish or disseminate Internet e-mails containing any content prescribed in Article 57 of the “Telecommunication Regulation of the People’s Republic of China”.

No organization or individual may make use of Internet e-mails to engage in the activities endangering the network safety or information safety, which are prohibited by Article 58 of the “Telecommunication Regulation of the People’s Republic of China”.

Article 12 No organization or individual may have the following acts:
(1) Making the computer system of others to send Internet e-mails without authorization; or
(2) Using the Internet e-mail addresses of others, which are got by online automatic collection, by arbitrary alphabetical or digital combination or by other means, in selling, sharing or exchanging Internet e-mails, or in sending Internet e-mails to the e-mail addresses got by the foregoing means.

Article 13 No organization or individual may have the following acts of sending Internet e-mails by itself/himself or upon entrustment:
(1) Intentionally concealing or forging Internet e-mail envelope information;
(2) Sending to an Internet e-mail recipient an Internet e-mail containing commercial advertisement contents without the recipient’s clear consent; or
(3) Failing to indicate the typeface of “advertisement” or “AD” at the former part of the Internet e-mail title information when sending Internet e-mails containing commercial advertisement contents.

Article 14 Where an Internet e-mail recipient refuses to continue receiving Internet e-mails containing commercial advertisement contents after clearly consenting to such receipt, the Internet e-mail senders shall stop sending them, unless otherwise agreed upon between both parties.

An Internet e-mail service sender shall, when sending Internet e-mails containing commercial advertisement contents, provide the recipients with the means of contact for refusing to continue receiving the said e-mails, including the sender’s e-mail address, and shall guarantee that the means of contact it provides will be valid within 30 days.

Article 15 An Internet e-mail service provider, or a telecommunication service provider that provides access services to Internet e-mail services shall accept the users’ revealment on Internet e-mails, and provide the users with convenient ways for revealment.

Article 16 An Internet e-mail service provider, or a telecommunication service provider that provides access services to Internet e-mail services shall deal with the users’ revealment in light of the following requirements:
(1) It shall timely report to the relevant state organ when finding that a revealed Internet e-mail obviously contains any content prohibited by Paragraph 1 of Article 11 of the present Measures;
(2) For other revealed Internet e-mails not prescribed in Item (1) of the present Article, it shall report them to the Internet E-mail Revealment Acceptance Center established by the Internet Society of China upon entrustment of the Ministry of Information Industry (hereinafter referred to as “Internet E-mail Revealment Acceptance Center”);
(3) If it is involved in any revealed Internet e-mail, it shall immediately make an investigation, take reasonable and effective prevention or settlement measures, and timely report the relevant information and the investigation result to the relevant state organ or the Internet E-mail Revealment Acceptance Center.

Article 17 Internet E-mail Revealment Acceptance Center shall carry out the following work according to the working rules and flows made by the Ministry of Information Industry:
(1) Accepting the relevant revealment on Internet e-mails;
(2) Assisting the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau in ascertaining whether the revealed Internet e-mails violate the relevant clauses in the present Measures, and assisting in investigating the relevant persons held liable; and
(3) Assisting the relevant state organ in investigating the relevant persons held liable due to violation of Article 11 of the present Measures.

Article 18 An Internet e-mail service provider, or a telecommunication service provider that provides access services to Internet e-mail services shall actively cooperate with the relevant state organs and the Internet E-mail Revealment Acceptance Center in making investigations.

Article 19 Whoever violates Article 4 of the present Measures by providing Internet e-mail services without obtaining the permit for operation of value-added telecommunication services or without performing the procedures for archival filing of non-operational Internet information services shall be penalized in accordance with Article 19 of the “Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services”.

Article 20 Whoever violates Article 5 of the present Measures shall be ordered by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau upon its powers to make a correction, and be fined up to 10,000 Yuan, in addition.

Article 21 Whoever fails to perform the obligations prescribed in Article 6, 7, 8 or 10 of the present Measures shall be ordered by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau upon its powers to make a correction, and shall be fined 5,000 Yuan up to 10,000 Yuan, in addition.

Article 22 Whoever violates Article 9 of the present Measures shall be ordered by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau upon its powers to make a correction, and be fined up to 10,000 Yuan, in addition; if there is any illegal proceeds, it shall be fined up to 30,000 Yuan, in addition.

Article 23 Whoever violates Article 11 of the present Measures shall be punished under Article 67 of the “Telecommunication Regulation of the People’s Republic of China”.

Where an Internet e-mail service provider or any other telecommunication service provider has any act prohibited by Article 11 of the present Measures, it shall be penalized by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau in accordance with Article 78 of the “Telecommunication Regulation of the People’s Republic of China” and Article 20 of the “Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services”.

Article 24 Whoever violates Article 12, 13 or 14 of the present Measures shall be ordered by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau upon its powers to make a correction, and be fined up to 10,000 Yuan, in addition; if there is any illegal proceeds, it shall be fined up to 30,000 Yuan, in addition.

Article 25 Whoever violates Article 15, 16 or 18 of the present Measures shall be admonished by the Ministry of Information Industry or the communication administrative bureau upon its powers, and be fined 5,000 Yuan up to 10,000 Yuan, in addition.

Article 26 The term Internet e-mail address as mentioned in the present Measures shall refer to the globally unique endpoint identifier which is composed of a user’s name and an Internet domain name, and on the basis of which e-mails may be sent to Internet e-mail users.

The term Internet e-mail envelope information as mentioned in the present Measures shall refer to the information attached to an Internet e-mail and used to mark the Internet e-mail source, endpoint and transmission process including the Internet e-mail senders, recipients and transmission routing.

The term Internet e-mail title information as mentioned in the present Measures shall refer to the information attached to an Internet e-mail and used to mark the title of Internet e-mail contents.

Article 27 The present Measures shall come into force on March 30, 2006.