XS4ALL Wins Anti-Spam Suit

johnpc writes: "In a court case started by Dutch ISP XS4ALL, a judge ruled yesterday that spam outfit AbFab is forbidden to send spam to all subscribers of said ISP. The judge writes: 'The essential point is that XS4ALL has no legal conveyance obligation. (...) XS4ALL does not wish to convey messages which its customers have not asked to receive and therefore does not wish these messages to be delivered through its systems, in this case from Abfab. The question of whether the unsolicited sending of large volumes of advertising messages by e-mail should be referred to as 'spam' or 'electronic direct marketing' is not relevant to this dispute.' This is obviously not a solution to the spam problem within the Netherlands, but it is a step in the right direction. You can read an english abstract of the ruling. Unfortunately, most of the actual case documents are in dutch, some of which are still being translated."

Comments

Re:I have to laugh

[gkbarr]

Well, you and the spammers both seem to have one thing in common... wasting bandwidth.

Re:I have to laugh

[Dimensio]

If the law allowed for brutal public execution of spammers and people who knowingly contract spam run, I suspect that your spam load would drop significantly.

What's spam?

[trollbot]

For the vast majority of law-abiding Americans, spam is a non-issue. Almost everybody I fraternise with uses MicroSoft's HoTMaiL.NET service.

During recent renovations to the worlds first and best web-mail system, MicroSoft were kind and talented enough to add a heuristics-based artificial intelligence spam-blocking feature. At first I was sceptical - I mean, I use a sophisticated L.I.N.U.X. system to try and reduce spam, and still I receive around 10-20 spam messages every day. Imagine my suprise the day I peered over a colleague's shoulder to see the work of art that is the new HoTMaiL.NET User Interface. Not only was it exceptionally aesthetically pleasing, but it had a helpful 'Junk-Mail' mailbox to keep precisely that - Junk Mail!!! I proceeded to enquire about this fantastic, energy saving innovation. My co-worker simply could not contain her delight with the system. She confided that since the HoTMaiL revamp, she had received a total of zero unwanted messages, including ones from a mentally unstable transient who had been stalking her for weeks!!

I'm sorry if I rant, or come off as an 'astro-turfer' (whatever that means), but I prefer to think of myself as an evangelist. Simply put, HoTMaiL.NET is the finest e-mail system currently in use, and I would have no problems whatsoever in recommending it to anybody who would rather receive less unwanted mail. I'm sure that when the Netherlands receives access to the civilised Internet, the judge's decision will be overturned as their population migrates to a powerful, easy-to-use system such as MicroSoft's spam filter.

Re:The ruling is not about SPAM.

[tulare]

I went ahead and had a look at Hamibi's website, too, and had to laugh through my disgust.

"granted Intel an unprecedented preliminary injunction to ban me from sending informative and educational e-mail messages to Intel employees."

Yeah, right. I can just imagine his idea of "Educational and informative" now:

TO: staff@intel.com
FROM: eoiff30dn3@hotmail.com
SUBJECT: INCREASE YOUR PENIS SIZE NOW - NINE INCHES GUARIANTEED!!!!!!!

Hamibi Enterprises, a well known and medically respected pharmaceutical manufacturer announces a fantastic new brakesthru now - bring out the REAL you! Results GURANTEED!....
Got a couple of Shifmans in his family tree, I guess.

erm. smapping == spamming aaaarg

[Otis_INF]

I should have used the preview button yadda yadda. haha :) what a stupid typo.

I'd LOVE to "Deal With It"

[Steve B]

Guess what? DEAL with it!

I am attempting to deal with spammers. Unfortunately, justice is thwarted by the law, so I cannot deal with spammers the way George Bush is dealing with al-Qaeda, but I get as close to that idea as I can.