Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: This is the way to stop spammers

  1. #1
    The ******* Shadow dalek's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    1,564

    This is the way to stop spammers

    Source

    Claim back £300 per spam
    Net crusader creates legal precedent

    Net expert Nigel Roberts has won a landmark legal victory by chasing down a UK spammer and winning £300 in costs.

    Roberts, who runs his own Internet business as well as the Jersey and Guernsey country code domains, used his legal know-how to apply EU legislation to a UK company, Media Logistics.

    It is believed to be the first time the legislation has been used in the UK, and could open the doors for thousands of other cases.

    Back in August, Roberts received several marketing emails from Media Logistics. They were just a few of the many thousands that he and every Internet user receive each year, except that Mr Roberts tracked the email back to the company using its IP address.

    Recognising that as a UK company it came under the EU law, he sent a letter demanding an apology, damages and the name of the company that had given Media Logistics his email address. The company apologised but refused his two other requests.

    Unfortunately for the company, Roberts, 37, is a recognised internet expert and was studying for a law degree, which he has just been awarded. After lengthy correspondence, the company offered £100 in damages but claimed not to be able to disclose the name of the company it had bought his email address from for legal reasons. Pushing further, Media Logistics disclosed the name of a long-dead company.

    Roberts took the company to court in October and won, with damages to be decided at a hearing on 4 January 2006. Just prior to Xmas, however, the company offered £300 as a final settlement which Mr Roberts agreed to. He is due to receive the cheque tomorrow.

    The case sets an interesting precedent. Since it was settled out of court, the damages will not be bidding in future cases, but the cost is likely to be used as a guideline. The case will also highlight the EU anti-spam law (Directive 2002/58/EC) and its practical effectiveness.

    Roberts is also preparing a series of legal templates based on his case which he will make available for free on his campaigning website found at www.spamlegalaction.co.uk. He told us it will be a "DIY spam self-defence kit". The hope is that without any specialised legal knowledge, even everyday Internet users will be able to sue companies that send them unsolicited email.

    The EU law was introduced in July 2002, and is similar to other laws across the world hoping to put an end to the spam menace. So far though, the only law to have been used effectively has been in the US. It has also only been large IT companies such as Microsoft that have been able to make the most of it to win damages from spammers and so make it a less profitable profession.

    Roberts' victory could well do what the internet does best and empower millions of individuals to chase down companies.

    It is not a panacea to spam however. Many spammers spoof IP addresses or use servers based in countries outside of spam legislation. But it is a step in the right direction, and indicative of a wider movement against spam.

    The world's governments agreed in November to set up a new worldwide forum to devise applicable rules and laws for spam right across the globe. Technical changes coming to the Internet, such as the move to IPv6, will also make the sending of spam more difficult and traceable. ®
    fed up with Spammers make a claim!

    erghh....... I claim a 2% finders fee for all of you who are sucessfull

    PC Registered user # 2,336,789,457...

    "When the water reaches the upper level, follow the rats."
    Claude Swanson

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    332
    I am going to look into the US laws regarding this a little bit as well as pass it off to a lawyer friend of mine, but I wonder if it would be possible to start class-action lawsuites against these spammers. Take X amount of people that have all recieved un-solicited spam from company A, file to be considered a class, and sue the pants off 'em. If that were to start happening it would only be a matter of time before spam pretty much became non-existant, except for the small percentage of spam that was actually legitimately accidently sent.
    \"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.\"
    Benjamin Franklin

  3. #3
    AO Senior Cow-beller
    Moderator
    zencoder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Mountain standard tribe.
    Posts
    1,177
    Originally posted here by JewishIntent
    I am going to look into the US laws regarding this a little bit as well as pass it off to a lawyer friend of mine, but I wonder if it would be possible to start class-action lawsuites against these spammers. Take X amount of people that have all recieved un-solicited spam from company A, file to be considered a class, and sue the pants off 'em. If that were to start happening it would only be a matter of time before spam pretty much became non-existant, except for the small percentage of spam that was actually legitimately accidently sent.
    Unfortunately, I think this would only impact the (relatively small, I'm guessing) portion of SPAM that comes from 'legitimate' bulkmailers, who usually try to toe the line anyway. Most of the time, SPAM comes from IPs in countries where the laws and diplomatic agreements aren't strong enough of responsive enough to make this effective.

    For cases where you receive SPAM from a source within the same country you live in, this is terrific...but I don't think it'll be all that effective. I don't get that much spam...due to strict behavior on who knows and how I use my email address...but most of what I do receive is gibberish, spoofed, or from IPs allocated to regions or countries where it's not worth the effort to do anything about it except <SHIFT> + <DEL>.

    Great story, huzzah for the good guys, but it won't change the world as we know it.
    "Data is not necessarily information. Information does not necessarily lead to knowledge. And knowledge is not always sufficient to discover truth and breed wisdom." --Spaf
    Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job. --Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
    "...people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right." - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

  4. #4
    Stopping spam = find them + line them up against the wall + shoot them.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •