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Class Action Lawsuit Against Spammer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the eggs-bacon-and-50-dollars-please dept.

sfjoe writes "California-based spammer eTracks is being sued by the law firm, Morrison and Foerster (who have a very cool homepage). M & F's press release says they are "...seeking other relief, including attorneys' fees and statutorily authorized damages of $50 for each email delivered in violation of the law, up to $25,000 per day". California's anti-spam law has already held up under appeals court scrutiny so this may very well be a major setback to the spam industry." I think spammers should be forced to pay by donating an organ for each forged header.

27 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Where's My Money, Mofo? by derrickh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unfortunatley, odds are that as soon as they win the case, the spammer will disappear and resurface somewhere else, only to repeat the process.

    D

    --
    The first, last, and only tech news site on the net
  2. just to make sure the spambots pick these up.... by edrugtrader · · Score: 4, Funny

    sales@etracks.com
    staffhelp@etracks.com
    busdev@etracks.com
    email_removal@response.etrac ks.com
    isp@etracks.com

    --
    MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
  3. Not To Be Confused With... by ksw2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not to be confused with Mark A. Fry & Associates.

  4. Re:what gives? by travisd · · Score: 3

    Because they cost us money. Bandwidth, CPU, and disk space are NOT free and you, your provider, and the backbone providers are all spending money to handle SPAM. Just because you don't see it on a bill doesn't mean you're not paying for it.

  5. Re:what gives? by GigsVT · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are specific laws in most states against sending spam with forged headers.

    These people are not legitimate marketers. They collect names, that much is probably legal, but the illegal part comes when they commit computer trespass, exploiting poorly configured servers, and signing the mail with fraudulent return addresses.

    If these crimes take place in other countries, it may be legal, but it is illegal in most of the united states. VA has a personal juristiction clause in the law. If you spam here, then you do business here, you come to court here.

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  6. Re:what gives? by Stonehand · · Score: 3

    A large proportion of spam IS illegal -- Ponzi schemes, "miracle" drugs that don't work, Nigerian bank scams, attempts at stock pump-n-dump, off-shore internet gambling, copyright infringement, importing pharmaceuticals, and other miscellaneous fraudulent activities. That's because most of these can't be advertised legitimately.

    Commerce *is* subjected to regulation, you know...

    --
    Only the dead have seen the end of war.
  7. Do thier IT/Sys Admins read /. ? by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Interesting

    [snip]Morrison & Foerster employs approximately 1,000 attorneys and 1,350 non-attorney staff in 18 offices worldwide. [/snip]
    [snip] Morrison & Foerster was named by Fortune Magazine in its first list of 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. [/snip]

    Thats alot of desktop computers and servers for a company, Always wondered how many people from the companies in articles on /. read slashdot. I know I get a kick when the company I work for or related subjects are news posts.

    Come on MoFo IT/IS guys, post some replys!

  8. and all the politicians who don't help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sen. Jeff Sessions senator@sessions.senate.gov Sen. Richard Shelby senator@shelby.senate.gov Rep. Spencer Bachus sbachus@hr.house.gov Rep. Sonny Callahan callahan@hr.house.gov Rep. Bud Cramer budmail@hr.house.gov Rep. Terry Everett everett@hr.house.gov Alaska Sen Ted Stevens senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov Sen. Frank Murkowski email@murkowski.senate.gov Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl info@kyl.senate.gov Sen. John McCain senator_mccain@mccain.senate.gov Rep. J. D. Hayworth hayworth@hr.house.gov Rep. Jim Kolbe jimkolbe@hr.house.gov Rep. Ed Pastor edpastor@hr.house.gov Arkansas Sen. Dale Bumpers senator@bumpers.senate.gov Sen. Tim Hutchinson senator hutchinson@hutchinson.senate.gov Rep. Jay Dickey jdickey@hr.house.gov Rep. Tim Hutchinson timhutch@hr.house.gov California Sen. Barbara Boxer senator@boxer.senate.gov Sen. Dianne Feinstein senator@feinstein.senate.gov Rep. Brian Bilbray bilbray@hr.house.gov Rep. George Brown talk2geb@hr.house.gov Rep. Tom Campbell campbell@hr.house.gov Rep. Chris Cox chriscox@hr.house.gov Rep. David Dreier cyberrep@hr.house.gov Rep. Anna Eshoo annagram@hr.house.gov Rep. Sam Farr samfarr@hr.house.gov Rep. Vic Fazio dcaucus@hr.house.gov Rep. Jane Harman jharman@hr.house.gov Rep. Tom Lantos talk2tom@hr.house.gov Rep. Jerry Lewis khuiskes@hr.house.gov Rep. Zoe Lofgren zoegram@hr.house.gov Rep. Howard McKeon tellbuck@hr.house.gov Rep. George Miller gmiller@hr.house.gov Rep. Ron Packard rpackard@hr.house.gov Rep. Nancy Pelosi sfnancy@hr.house.gov Rep. George Radanovich george@hr.house.gov Rep. Frank Riggs repriggs@hr.house.gov Rep. Fortney 'Pete' Stark petemail@hr.house.gov Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey woolsey@hr.house.gov Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell data@nighthorse.falcontech.com Rep. Dan Schaefer schaefer@hr.house.gov Rep. David Skaggs skaggs@hr.house.gov Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd. sen_dodd@dodd.senate.gov Sen. Joseph Lieberman. senator_lieberman@lieberman.senate.gov Rep. Sam Gejdenson bozrah@hr.house.gov Rep. Christopher Shays cshays@hr.house.gov Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden senator@biden.senate.gov Sen. William Roth Rep. Michael Castle delaware@hr.house.gov Florida Sen. Bob Graham bob_graham@graham.senate.gov Sen. Connie Mack senator_mack@jec.senate.gov Rep. Michael Bilirakis truerep@hr.house.gov Rep. Charles Canady canady@hr.house.gov Rep. Peter Deutsch pdeutsch@hr.house.gov Rep. Alcee Hastings hastings@hr.house.gov Rep. John Mica mica@hr.house.gov Rep. Dan Miller miller13@hr.house.gov Rep. Cliff Stearns cstearns@hr.house.gov Rep. Karen Thurman kthurman@hr.house.gov Rep. Dave Weldon fla-15@hr.house.gov Georgia Sen. Max Cleland senator_max_cleland@cleland.senate.gov Sen. Paul Coverdell senator_coverdell@coverdell.senate.gov Rep. Saxby Chambliss saxby@hr.house.gov Rep. Mac Collins rep3mac@hr.house.gov Rep. Newt Gingrich georgia6@hr.house.gov Rep. John Linder jlinder@hr.house.gov Rep. Charlie Norwood ga10@hr.house.gov Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka Sen. Daniel Inouye senator@inouye.senate.gov Rep. 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Sam Brownback sam_brownback@brownback.senate.gov Sen. Pat Roberts Rep. Todd Tiahrt tiahrt@hr.house.gov Kentucky Sen. Wendell Ford wendell_ford@ford.senate.gov Sen. Mitch McConnell senator@mcconnell.senate.gov Rep. Jim Bunning bunning4@hr.house.gov Louisiana Sen. John Breaux senator@breaux.senate.gov Sen. Mary Landrieu senator@landrieu.senate.gov Rep. Jim McCrery mccrery@hr.house.gov Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe olympia@snowe.senate.gov Sen. Susan Collins senator@collins.senate.gov Rep. John Baldacci baldacci@hr.house.gov Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski. senator@mikulski.senate.gov Sen. Paul Sarbanes senator@sarbanes.senate.gov Rep. Ben Cardin cardin@hr.house.gov Rep. Robert Ehrlich, Jr. ehrlich@hr.house.gov Rep. Albert Wynn alwynn@hr.house.gov Massachusetts Sen Edward Kennedy senator@kennedy.senate.gov Sen. John Kerry john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov Rep. Martin Meehan mtmeehan@hr.house.gov Rep. Joe Moakley jmoakley@hr.house.gov Rep. John Olver olver@hr.house.gov Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham michigan@abraham.senate.gov Sen. Carl Levin senator@levin.senate.gov Rep. Dave Camp davecamp@hr.house.gov Rep. John Conyers, Jr. jconyers@hr.house.gov Rep. Vernon Ehlers congehlr@hr.house.gov Rep. Peter Hoekstra tellhoek@hr.house.gov Rep. Lynn Rivers lrivers@hr.house.gov Rep. Nick Smith repsmith@hr.house.gov Rep. Bart Stupak stupak@hr.house.gov Rep. Fred Upton talk2fsu@hr.house.gov Minnesota Sen. Rod Grams mail_grams@grams.senate.gov Sen. Paul Wellstone senator@wellstone.senate.gov Rep. Gil Gutknecht gil@hr.house.gov Rep. Bill Luther tellbill@hr.house.gov Rep. David Minge dminge@hr.house.gov Rep. James Oberstar oberstar@hr.house.gov Rep. Collin Peterson tocollin@hr.house.gov Rep. Jim Ramstad mn03@hr.house.gov Rep. Martin Sabo msabo@hr.house.gov Rep. Bruce Vento vento@hr.house.gov Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran senator@cochran.senate.gov Sen. Trent Lott sentorlott@lott.senate.gov Rep. Bennie Thompson ms2nd@hr.house.gov Rep. Roger Wicker rwicker@hr.hosue.gov Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft john_ashcroft@ashcroft.senate.gov Sen. Christopher Bond kit_bond@bond.senate.gov Rep. Jo Ann Emerson jemerson@hr.house.gov Rep. Richard Gephardt demldr@hr.house.gov Rep. James Talent talentmo@hr.house.gov Montana Sen. Max Baucus max@baucus.senate.gov Sen Conrad Burns conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov Nebraska Sen. Charles Hagel chuck_hagel@hagel.senate.gov Sen. Bob Kerrey bob@kerrey.senate.gov Rep. Jon Cristensen talk2jon@hr.house.gov Nevada Sen. Harry Reid senator_reid@reid.senate.gov Sen. Richard Bryan senator@bryan.senate.gov Rep. John Ensign ensign@hr.house.gov New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg mailbox@gregg.senate.gov Sen. Bob Smith opinion@smith.senate.gov Rep. Charles Bass cbass@hr.house.gov New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg frank_lautenberg@lautenberg.senate.gov Sen. Robert Toricelli senator_torricelli@torricelli.senate.gov Rep. Robert Andrews randrews@hr.house.gov Rep. Bob Franks franksnj@hr.house.gov Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen njeleven@hr.house.gov New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov Sen. Pete Domenici senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan senator@dpm.senate.gov Sen. Alfonse D'Amato senator_al@damato.senate.gov Rep. Sherwood Boehlert boehlert@hr.house.gov Rep. Eliot Engel engeline@hr.house.gov Rep. Michael Forbes mpforbes@hr.house.gov Rep. Maurice Hinchey hinchey@hr.house.gov Rep. Sue Kelly dearsue@hr.house.gov Rep. Peter King peteking@hr.house.gov Rep. Rick Lazio lazio@hr.house.gov Rep. Nita Lowey nitamail@hr.house.gov Rep. Carolyn Maloney cmaloney@hr.house.gov Rep. Thomas Manton tmanton@hr.house.gov Rep. Michael McNulty mmcnulty@hr.house.gov Rep. Susan Molinari molinari@hr.house.gov Rep. Jerrold Nadler nadler@hr.house.gov Rep. Bill Paxon bpaxon@hr.house.gov Rep. Charles Rangel rangel@hr.house.gov Rep. Jose Serrano jserrano@hr.house.gov Rep. Jim Walsh jwalsh@hr.house.gov North Carolina Sen Lauch Faircloth senator@faircloth.senate.gov Sen. Jesse Helms jesse_helms@helms.senate.gov Rep. Cass Ballenger cassmail@hr.house.gov Rep. Richard Burr mail2nc5@hr.house.gov Rep. Sue Myrick myrick@hr.house.gov Rep. Charles Taylor chtaylor@hr.house.gov Rep. Mel Watt melmail@hr.house.gov North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad senator@conrad.senate.gov Sen. Byron Dorgan senator@dorgan.senate.gov Rep. Earl Pomeroy epomeroy@hr.house.gov Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine senator_dewine@dewine.senate.gov Sen. John Glenn senator_glenn@glenn.senate.gov Rep. Sherrod Brown sherrod@hr.house.gov Rep. John Kasich budget@hr.house.gov Rep. Michael Oxley oxley@hr.house.gov Rep. Rob Portman portmail@hr.house.gov Rep. Deborah Pryce pryce15@hr.house.gov Rep. James Traficant telljim@hr.house.gov Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe Sen. Don Nickles senator@nickles.senate.gov Rep. Ernest J. Istook, Jr. istook@hr.house.gov Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith oregon@gsmith.senate.gov Sen. Ron Wyden senator@wyden.senate.gov Rep. Peter DeFazio pdefazio@hr.house.gov Rep. Elizabeth Furse furseor1@hr.house.gov Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum senator@santorum.senate.gov Sen Arlen Specter senator_specter@specter.senate.gov Rep. Jon Fox jonfox@hr.house.gov Rep. Paul Kanjorski kanjo@hr.house.gov Rep. Paul McHale mchale@hr.house.gov Rep.John Murtha murtha@hr.house.gov Rep. Curt Weldon curtpa7@hr.house.gov Rhode Island Sen. John Chafee senator_chafee@chafee.senate.gov Sen. Jack Reed South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings senator@hollings.senate.gov Sen. Strom Thurmond senator@thurmond.senate.gov Rep. James E. Clyburn jclyburn@hr.house.gov Rep. Bob Inglis binglis@hr.house.gov Rep. Mark Sanford sanford@hr.house.gov Rep. John Spratt jspratt@hr.house.gov South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle tom_daschle@daschle.senate.gov Sen. Tim Johnson tim@johnson.senate.gov Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist senator_frist@frist.senate.gov Sen Fred Thompson senator_thompson@thompson.senate.gov Rep. Bob Clement clement@hr.house.gov Rep. J.J. Duncan jjduncan@hr.house.gov Rep. Harold Ford hford@hr.house.gov Rep. Bart Gordon bart@hr.house.gov Texas Sen. Phil Gramm Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison senator@hutchison.senate.gov Rep. Joe Barton barton06@hr.house.gov Rep. Lloyd Doggett doggett@hr.house.gov Rep. Martin Frost frost@hr.house.gov Rep. Henry Gonzales bnkgdems@hr.house.gov Rep. Gene Green ggreen@hr.house.gov Rep. Sam Johnson samtx03@hr.house.gov Utah Sen. Robert Bennett senator@bennett.senate.gov Sen. Orrin Hatch senator_hatch@hatch.senate.gov Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords vermont@jeffords.senate.gov Sen. Patrick Leahy senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov Rep. Bernie Sanders bsanders@igc.apc.org Virginia Sen. Charles Robb senator@robb.senate.gov Sen. John Warner senator@warner.senate.gov Rep. Rick Boucher ninthnet@hr.house.gov Rep. Thomas Davis tomdavis@hr.house.gov Rep. Bob Goodlatte talk2bob@hr.house.gov Rep. Jim Moran repmoran@hr.house.gov Rep. Owen Pickett opickett@hr.house.gov Washington Sen. Slade Gorton senator_gorton@gorton.senate.gov Sen. Patty Murray senator_murray@murray.senate.gov Rep. Jennifer Dunn dunnwa08@hr.house.gov Rep. George Nethercutt grnwa05@hr.house.gov Rep. Linda Smith asklinda@hr.house.gov Rep. Rick White repwhite@hr.house.gov West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov Sen. John Rockefeller III senator@rockefeller.senate.gov Rep. Nick Rahall nrahall@hr.house.gov Rep. Bob Wise bobwise@hr.house.gov Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold senator@feingold.senate.gov Sen. Herb Kohl senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov Rep. Thomas Barrett telltom@hr.house.gov Rep. Jerry Kleczka jerry4wi@hr.house.gov Rep. Scott Klug badger02@hr.house.gov Rep. Mark Neumann mneumann@hr.house.gov Rep. Tom Petri tompetri@hr.house.gov Rep. James Sensenbrenner sensen09@hr.house.gov Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas craig@thomas.senate.gov Sen. Mike Enzi senator@enzi.senate.gov Guam Del. Robert Underwood guamtodc@hr.house.gov

  9. Re:what gives? by gilroy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Blockquoth the poster:

    Why in the world should it be illegal?

    How about because spammers take up network resources and user time without being asked to, without being authorized to, and without yielding benefit? It costs a spammer essentially nothing to send an email that will consume perhaps thousands of dollars in lost bandwidth, CPU cycles, and user effort. The cost is not borne by the instigator, but by the unwilling recipient.


    Let's say I decided to drop by your house every day and scrawl an ad (or an offensive message) in chalk on the sidewalk. It's easy enough to erase -- just a little water spilled over it. Is it OK, then? What if I decided to do this every day to every house in your neighborhood? What if I got the chalk by, say, dropping by the local public school and absconding with it?


    And I don't know what a good anti-spam law would be, but I wish to death that people would stop acting as if it were a priori impossible to write one without somehow opening up all imaginable governmental ills. Good laws do exist, though it's fashionable on slashdot to pretend they don't. A targetted law helping to assign some economic cost to sending spam would help restore the operation of normal market forces. Not all slopes are slippery.

    --
    The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
  10. Re:what gives? by Marasmus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's the quick and dirty as to why many of the slashdot community have a violent hatred toward spammers: We run mail servers.

    I run vectorstar.net, a free hosting service. I would easily wager that greater than 90% of the mail that wriggles through to our users is spam. Thus, 90% of my mail-related disk space and 90% of my mail server processing goes to handling unwanted, unnecessary spam. That's the difference between being able to run a Pentium 100 server or a PIII-1ghz server. Thus, it costs me a LOT of money to deal with spam mail.

    The same situation falls true for the majority of businesses. Their mail servers handle far more spam than they do valid email. It leads to serious expenditures on mail server hardware, (in some companies) software, and staff to maintain the servers.

    So that's why we hate spam with a passion. :)

    --
    .... um, i lost you after "0110100001101001".
  11. Re:A death blow against Free Speech by sqlrob · · Score: 4, Informative
    Did you read the press release?

    "Even after receiving formal notice of Morrison & Foerster's policy against spam, Etracks has sent at least 6,500 unsolicited email advertisements to Morrison & Foerster's California users."

    So, my mail server I pay by the byte. Why should I pay for any spam, even the headers? If I'm forced to stop because of that, aren't they inhibiting my First Amendment rights?

    Read the law. The mail:

    Must be labeled advertisement

    Must have valid contact information

    Must not have forged headers

    Must cease mailing upon request How is any of that against the First Amendment?

  12. This is a really good sign. by Lumpish+Scholar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The reason people spam is that the cost is low, even in the worst case.

    Spammer's worst case just got much worse.

    If spamming becomes a risky, possibly very expensive proposition, the big spamhauses could be in trouble. They've got deep enough pockets to be hurt badly by such a suit. Bad news for them; good news for the rest of the Net.

    Sadly, it's probably not much of a threat to spammers in China, Russia, etc.

    --
    Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
  13. Not Class Action by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 3, Informative

    Geez, don't people read the linked material before posting? Or don't the editors make corrections before sending the thing to the main page? This is not a class action suit. It's Morrison and Foerster suing on their own behalf because of spam sent to users on their own network.

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  14. Re:what gives? by lblack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spam has rendered my hotmail address absolutely useless. I've had that address for around 4.5 years, now. It was a nice address. It was easy to remember, because it was my name@hotmail.com. No numbers, no funky underscoring, banging, etc. It was simple, elegant, and nobody ever forgot it. (My name@biggest free e-mail provider.com).

    Now, however, I receive about 20 spam a day to that address. I miss messages that I should be receiving. After going two months while travelling without internet access, I returned to discover nothing *but* spam in my inbox -- hotmail had automatically deleted the older messages on the assumption that I would want to keep the newer ones.

    Now, my hotmail block-list is full, and I have about another 200 addresses I would like to add to it. I cannot use that account, because it is now fundamentally useless. And spammers don't cost me money?

    Spammers cost money everytime they send an ad that a distracted person clicks on, and gets shipped off to a porn site. That red-flags the corporate internet policy manager or whoever, who has to then go TALK to that employee about their going to a porn site. Sure, they just show the spam and say "Oops". It costs both of those people at least half an hour, though, and at $100 an hour, that's an expensive piece of e-mail.

    The bandwidth used is not inconsiderable, either, particularly for people who are using dial-up accounts in regions where they pay-by-minute.

    Spam is hardly a victimless crime, it's just a stupid one, and it's all opportunity or possible cost, so it's hard to really say "oh, that cost us money". It definitely costs money. It cost me my fucking hotmail account, and discarded my lengthy correspondence with folk hero Donovan, for Chrissakes.

    Bah.
    l

  15. Re:Get em, you mofo lawyers! by Maserati · · Score: 3, Informative
    The $50 per spam comes out of California's anti-spam law. 17538.45 Section 5, sub f, sub 1


    So MoFo.com is going for the amx the law will allow, they might even get attorney's fees out of it (Section 5, sub f, sub 2).

    --
    Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
  16. Re:what gives? by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's a subtle difference here, if I remember the bizarre laws in the US concerning the US Postal Service...

    When a spammer abuses the network and your email account, he/she/it is NOT paying for the distribution, and is, in a way, "tresspassing" on your "property"...

    If I recall correctly (I may not), in some bizarre, technical, legal way, "your" mailbox (the physical one that the USPS delivers to) is ACTUALLY the property of the USPS (not sure how this works exactly, but I THINK this is law so as to put the Big Guns of the Federal Government behind dealing with illegal abuses of the Postal Service, rather than having to rely on individuals to report and accuse abusers). If this is true, then when a junkmailer pays the post office to deliver a bunch of crap to your address, it's only (again, in a technical, legal sort of way) the USPS' resources that are being used, not "yours".

    I may be totally off base here - if somebody with a better understanding of USPS-related law is reading this, I'd love a clarification...

    At any rate, the summary is that with junkmail, the junkmailer is covering the bulk of the cost to deliver, while with spam, the ISP's and recipients are covering the bulk of the costs. (Looked at another way - you don't pay the USPS to RECEIVE mail, so you're not really losing anything. You DO pay your ISP to recieve E-mail [as part of the cost of the rest of the ISP service] so receiving email does actually cost you something, even if it's a tiny amount.)

    Besides, paper is recyclable (though I suppose electrons are, too, come to think of it...)

    --
    Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
  17. Organs from spammers? by Dimensio · · Score: 4, Funny

    Regarding "I think spammers should be forced to pay by donating an organ for each forged header."

    Who would want an organ from a spammer in them? I'd sooner trust an organ from a pig, at least it's a mammal.

    --
    STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
  18. Re:just to make sure the spambots pick these up... by Anthony+Boyd · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey! Stop posting on slashdot and get back to work, like the rest of us! Uh, oh, wait....

    (mr edrugtrader is my employee :)

    --
    My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
  19. Re:Mofo. by jonathanjo · · Score: 4, Informative
    These are either the coolest lawyers in the world or most clueless.


    They are cool, not clueless. Vince Flanders of webpagesthatsuck.com related how he (or an acquaintance) emailed them, in essence,

    "Um, Mr. Morrison & Foerster, are you aware your URL, mofo.com, is, well, kindof obscene?"

    Their PR person replied, basically, "Yes, we're aware of that. We're cultivating an image of a firm you don't want to mess with."

    Given that, I will heed their advice and not mess with them. :)

    --

    Fight for your right to read books!
  20. Re:Do you think that I can sue them... by Wildcat+J · · Score: 3, Funny
    I receive about 3 ads for penis enlargement a day even if I am from the opposite sex.
    That would just make the results that much more impressive!

    -J

  21. Re:Interesting statistic . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wow, what a day. Today I found out that a good friend of mine just started working for a Spammer. I genuinely don't know how I feel about this -- he's part of the fucking problem!!!

    Anyways, the info he told me about their first spam run:
    400 web page hits per day pre-spam
    500K emails sent out (on behalf of a client)
    192K hits to client's webpage after that
    only 400 "take me off this list" messages

    *sigh*

    So I guess it works.

  22. Re:what gives? by klund · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have no problem with outdoor advertisements. I have no problem with
    billboards, or bus placards, or fancy lighted neon marquees. I can
    avert my eyes as I drive by them in my car.

    I do have a problem with graffiti. When you sneak up in the night and
    spray-paint "Eat at Joe's" on the side of my building, you are using MY
    PROPERTY without my permission. And I want to see you tarred, feathered
    and drowned in your own paint.

    Spam is grafitti. My computer, my disk space, and my bandwidth are
    things that I pay for; they are my property. When you use them, without
    my permission, to transmit your Nigerian Bank Scams, your porno ads,
    your Ponzi schemes, your stock-market pump-and-dumps, and your offshore
    casinos, you are spray-painting on my property.

    And I want to see you tarred, feathered and drowned in your own flith.

    --
    My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
  23. Re:set up a war between lawyers and spammers by tregoweth · · Score: 3, Funny

    Geez, who do you you root for in that war?

  24. Forged Heads by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think spammers should be forced to pay by donating an organ for each forged header.

    I'm not sure I'd ask anything from a spammer, short of their immediate death.

    TO: Jace of Fuse!
    FROM: Body Organs Galore

    Hello! I am e-mailing you about this great opprotunity to get ahold of a high quality kidney! Let me tell you the story! Once not too long ago, a college boy woke up in a bath tub full of ice...

    --

    "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

    Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
  25. Definition of "solicit?" by Telemakhos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This lawsuit made it onto NPR tonight... I was rather amused by one spam executive saying the mail was not "unsolicited" because many users give their names to mailing lists when registering for products... "without knowing it" (exact quote... forgive the lack of attribution, but I'm sure someone can dig up an NPR transcript for around 6:45 PM EST on 15 March 2002).

    My question then is this: how is the mail not unsolicited if the user doesn't know he's soliciting?

    Plato's Socrates might argue, of course, following the Meno, that the user's psyche solicited e-mail advertisements before birth and merely forgot about his solicitation upon entering the world. Perhaps he would demonstrate this by having an uneducated slave register software and sign up to be notified of special offers that might be of interest to him... but then the Athenians forced Socrates to drink hemlock precisely because they didn't want to put up with that kind of nonsense.

  26. Re:Mofo. by Merry_B.Buck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Try the anagram: "Morrison & Foerster LLP" == PORN AD TROLLER IN FOR MESS

  27. I wonder... by CleverNickName · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder how Spammer^H^H^H^H^H Governor-hopeful Bill Simon feels about this?

    I wonder if we could bring class action against his campaign?