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customers or to warn them when their pre-paid balances are low. "It may sound like businesses crying, but the way the regulations are right now, it will create inconveniences for customers as well," he says. "We are extremely concerned about spam, and it's in our interest to protect customers from being on the receiving end of it from anyone." John Lawford, counsel for consum- er organization at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, says he has little sym- pathy for those critical of the regula- tions. "They don't want to face up to the fact that you can't e-mail people you don't know. Some of the marketers have woken up and realized that this thing may actually apply to them, so they're attacking the regulations," Lawford says. Michael Osborne, a partner at Affleck Greene McMurtry LLP, says the tumult around CASL is unlikely to end with its coming into force. He calls the legislation Canada's "biggest restraint ever on freedom of speech" and says he expects various provisions to be challenged in court. "If I want to send a flyer to your house, I can do it. That's part of the trade-off for living in a free economy, and I don't see why e-mail would be any different. I don't like get- ting junk at my door or in my inbox, but if I want to live in a free economy, I think I have to accept that," Osborne says. And while startup companies strug- gle to market themselves, and law-abid- ing companies shell out cash to upgrade their databases and track their com- munications, Osborne says he expects CASL to have a negligible effect on the inboxes of ordinary Canadians. "True spammers will thumb their noses at this. They'll carry on sending e-mail for unli- censed pharmaceutical products and the like," he says. While the debate rages on over the regulations, larger companies are posi- tioning themselves so that they'll be ready to comply, whatever the final reg- ulations say. Craig McTaggart, director of broadband policy at Telus Commu- nications Co., says the real compliance problems will be for smaller companies. "Telus and other major companies have the resources to come to grips with this legislation now, but I'm convinced there are a lot of industries and com- panies that still don't really know much about this legislation. There's so much unknown, even among those who are fairly up to speed, so my view is the government is going to have to give a reasonable time for businesses and other organizations to bring themselves into compliance," McTaggart says. The backlash against the regula- tions has set back the "in-force" date for CASL until at least early 2012. Industry Canada and the CRTC are working on a second set of draft regulations, and some believe it may be 2013 before all the loose ends are tied up. Even if the legislation does come into force before then, many commentators say a tran- sition period will be needed to give companies a chance to fully comply. "Anything less than six months would be mind-boggling," says Hill. IH DigitalAd-CL_Jan_12.indd 1 INHOUSE DECEMBER 2011/JANUARY 2012 • 11-12-09 11:17 AM 35