Anti-Spam, EU rules etc.

This message was sent from: Suggestions and Proposals
http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=225653#225653
----------------------------------------------------------------

It's not clear to me, but I believe that the EU has some draconian rules about spam going into effect in October.  Italy has jumped the gun and put these rules into place already.  There's also some strict rules about privacy policy that the common market has in place.

I would like a combination of the "number as an image" patch to foil robot signups, and the "email confirmation" patch mentioned above implemented in the mainline of osCommerce.   While we're at it, the "must agree" patch to checkout is something that I need even though I don't deal with the EU (yet). I'm unclear on the path that features get added into osCommerce.   Do I simply beg, or can I contribute cash somewhere to get these features added?

The base code seems to be high quality and my understanding is that it's done on a volunteer basis.   Is there somewhere to "prime the pump" on features?  Sort of "vote with your wallet"?   I'd prefer to pay once, rather than to leave myself with an ongoing maintenance problem.