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Chit Chat / Spaming company sues ordinary bloke
« on: June 07, 2002, 10:50:29 AM »
I was just listenting to the radio (JJJ, a non commercial Australian radio station) this morning, and a story came on about a bloke who is being sued by a spam email marketing company. Here is a synopsis:
Apparently this bloke, Joe McNichol, didn't like receiving spam in his inbox, and tracked some of it down to a certain marketing company in Western Australia.
Apparently after contacting the company and getting nowhere, he submitted the name of the marketing company, t3direct, to an anti-spam group, called SPEWS (Spam Prevention Early Warning System).
SPEWS submitted t3direct's IP addresses to a number of ISPs, which then blocked email from them.
In the past, direct marketing companies have sued the owners of anti-spam sites, however, SPEWS were clever enough not to include contact names, etc.
So, in a world first, the company is now going after the Joe McNichol for submitting them!
He is being sued for $43,750 AUD (roughly US$24,600) for damages and loss of income. McNichol is contesting the action.
To say the least, this case will prove interesting to follow, as it will set a precedent. Can you imagine if the company is successful? Will that open the floodgates for a plethora of legal action by spammers? I will be keeping an eye on this one!
For more info, check here:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20265640,00.htm
http://list-news.com/articles/02june/20020603.html
In German:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/hps-31.05.02-000/
McNichols own website:
http://www.vtgts.com/auspam.htm
and SPEWS:
http://spews.org/
Apparently this bloke, Joe McNichol, didn't like receiving spam in his inbox, and tracked some of it down to a certain marketing company in Western Australia.
Apparently after contacting the company and getting nowhere, he submitted the name of the marketing company, t3direct, to an anti-spam group, called SPEWS (Spam Prevention Early Warning System).
SPEWS submitted t3direct's IP addresses to a number of ISPs, which then blocked email from them.
In the past, direct marketing companies have sued the owners of anti-spam sites, however, SPEWS were clever enough not to include contact names, etc.
So, in a world first, the company is now going after the Joe McNichol for submitting them!
He is being sued for $43,750 AUD (roughly US$24,600) for damages and loss of income. McNichol is contesting the action.
To say the least, this case will prove interesting to follow, as it will set a precedent. Can you imagine if the company is successful? Will that open the floodgates for a plethora of legal action by spammers? I will be keeping an eye on this one!
For more info, check here:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20265640,00.htm
http://list-news.com/articles/02june/20020603.html
In German:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/hps-31.05.02-000/
McNichols own website:
http://www.vtgts.com/auspam.htm
and SPEWS:
http://spews.org/