4th Circuit Court Sides With a Spammer

bulled writes to tell us about coverage on CNet regarding a ruling a couple of weeks back that allows a spamming company to procede with their suit against a spamfighter. The 4th Circuit court ruled that the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, much derided here, trumps the Oklahoma law under which anti-spam activist Mark Mumma sued Omega World Travel for spamming him. The ruling allows Omega World Travel's countersuit, for defamation, to go forward. From the article: "'There's been a lot of activity in the states to pass laws purportedly to protect their citizens' from spam, said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University. 'The 4th Circuit may have laid waste to all of those efforts.'"

Re:Mod UP if getting "XXXXXX wrote:" SPAM

[JaredOfEuropa]

Try modding these messages down next time, and you might get less of them...

Irony

[Cauchy]

Ironically enough, when I read the article, and advertisement for www.cruise.com, the spammer in question, appeared at the bottom of the page. I wonder how many people will read this article and then feel inspired to shop for a cruise from them?

Re:Important Because

[powerlord]

But how can a state protect you from spam when the problem is really global where the state and US laws don't always apply?

Oh, thats easy. ... Newt Gingritches new "Great Wall of Bureaucracy

Re:really?

[User 956]

Don't bother. None of the editors around here have even seen a dictionary, let alone realize that "procede" doesn't exist in any of them.

Many would argue that use of "procede" is perfectly cromulent.

Re:duh

[Pojut]

Even better, you should tell them. Say to them "I am going to disable the spam filter for you for one week. At the end of the week, come back and tell me you don't think the filter works."

Re:Mod UP if getting "XXXXXX wrote:" SPAM

[jacksonj04]

This doesn't work in most cases, since your friends aren't usually going to quote C. S. Lewis at you. Therefore, anything which sounds like classical literature is spam.

Re:Spam

[Dunbal]

the judge took the spam companies offer to help him enlarge his penis.

      Perhaps he got his Un1v3rsi+y d3gRe3 online, too...

Re:May these judges get nothing but v14gr4 spam

[whitehatlurker]

When will someone tell them that?

Hey, don't blame me - I sent them an email . . . oh!