FOR RELEASE 10th APRIL 2004

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VILLAGEMALL^®
 Australian Spam Act 2003, comes into force on the 11th April 2004..

With penalties of up to $1.1million per day, Australian business owners cannot afford to risk the fines risks associated with Electronic Business Communication..

Brisbane, Australia,- April 2004 - VillageMall^®, the premier provider of Web-based applications, launched its Web-Publisher Solution for NO SPAM newsletters and distribution of commercial information to current and potential customers. Today most business owners are seeing less and less value in the use of Email for business communication; due in part to the increasing volume of SPAM, and email based virus's. Yet simple cost effective communication with current and potential clients under-pins most successful business operations.

The SPAM Act of 2003 which comes into force on the 11th of April 2004, has a very limiting premise of no mail without consent. "Using the analogy of conventional mail, Mr Argy (ACS 12/08/03) said it would be absurd to say that no one could write you a letter unless you had already given consent to receive it." Yet this is precisely what has been enacted within the SPAM act of 2003.

"Australian business owners need to communicate with current and potential customers without the threat of Individuals fined up to $44,000 and incorporated entities $220,000 for first offences. However, repeat offenders which are incorporated can be fined up to $1.1 million a day. Most business owners are not spammers, as they understand that relationships with current and potential customers underpins a successful business; but the Australian government Spam act of 2003, makes no exemption for legitimate business activities, unless you are a politician, government body, registered political party, charities, or religious organisation. Business Email within Australia, is likely to slowly die from the 10th of April 2004, for those companies whom simply cannot afford the financial risks within the Act. It is ironic that the act is not expected to significantly affect the volume of SPAM, which originates outside of Australia, but is likely to add to the cost of 'doing business' within Australia.
A simple alternative is urgently needed to keep commerce alive and well within Australia, yet meet the legitimate concerns of consumers and the requirements of the Act. This is especially important for small business owners who may find the first time they know about the act is when they receive a warning from the Australian Communications Authority; which is responsible for compliance with the act. We created our Web-Publishing Solution, with the vision to enable any company, to combine their knowledge with our technologies to deliver a valued result directly to the widest possible consumer. VillageMall's subscription price of $60 per month includes everything a business needs to publish, and distribute content, such as newsletters or product information online, and syndicate their content directly to partners, or consumers. We provide the one-stop-shop web-publishing solution, accessible securely over the Internet with nothing to download, enabling anytime, anywhere access." commented Charles Moore, founder of VillageMall.

Put the decision in the hands of the consumer, with industry standard content syndication which delivers content to a consumers desktop, totally under their control. Web-publisher uses a combination of the traditional Publisher processes, to give the customer timely information, they want.

Gain greater efficiency – by fully leverage digital processes for managing content from creation to delivery and distribution and by integrating all processes, thus making every step along the way much faster and more efficient.

Create interactive content, inbuilt ratings and feedback, helps target material to meet your readership requirements. The days of static content is very limited, consumers expect content to match their expectation or needs, or they simply move on. Additionally companies get instant feedback on their product or service articles, enabling them to better target the material to the readership, a win-win for all involved.

Web Publisher improves business processes, resulting in faster and more efficient production, and distribution of Newsletters, product or service announcements. Information costs less and gets out the door more quickly; our inbuilt Really Simple Syndication (RSS) service distributes content, directly to subscribers, overcoming all SPAM or email rejection problems, and addresses the consent issues within the Australian SPAM act of 2003. Newspapers have used specialist wire-services to filter and deliver time-sensitive information to journalists for many years. The Internet is full of information, but who has the time to find it, syndication allows consumers to control what information is delivered direct to their desktop. Web-Publisher also provides the subscription, or pay-per-view infrastructure to make electronic publishing a successful business proposition for high value content.

More information here.

About VillageMall

VillageMall is the pioneer, in secure web-based applications for Small to Medium business (5 to 250 employees). VillageMall is a privately held company, founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.
For more information please contact us, or visit the company Web site at www.Villagemall.com.au.