Spamhaus fined $11.7 million for blocking spam
US judgement meaningless, says UK anti-spam project.
An Illinois court has passed a judgement demanding UK-based spam advisory organisation Spamhaus pay
$11.7 million in damages to a spammer it labelled a spammer. Spamhaus has laughed in the face of the charges,
insisting that not only is the claimant a spammer, but that the court has no jurisdiction over them.
Illinois-based company e360 Insight, and its head David Linhardt, sued Spamhaus after the organisation
included information on them in its 'Register of Known Spam Operations' (ROKSO) (see their entry in the database
here). Spamhaus mounted no
defence of the claims, and a default judgement was granted to the claimants without counter-arguments.
In several strongly-worded statements, Spamhaus described the laughable nature in the case, saying that not
only are many of the charges without foundation, but that under British law the case would be impossible and
illegal, as spamming is banned in Britain. Other claims, including the charge that Spamhaus prevented
e360 from sending out its spam, are also derided. The project is ignoring not only the fines but also demands
that the ROKSO entry be removed and that a public statement of Linhardt and e360's innocence be released.
'This is an example of litigious culture gone wild,' said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. 'That
someone can waste a court's time with a case that is not only baseless, but impossible to enforce, makes it all the
more ridiculous. Kudos to Spamhaus for taking a strong stance and paying no heed to the court's demands.'
Spamhaus's responses to the case can be seen
here and here.
Find out more about the spam problem at the Virus Bulletin conference (11-13 October, Montréal), where
Jay Goldin and Amir Lev (Commtouch Software) will present
their paper 'Containing spam - the local challenge'.
See the full programme here or click here
to register now.
15 September 2006
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