Beating the Spam Merchants

Crowbraid writes: "Well-written column by Margie Boule from the Portland Oregonian about an individual who got tired of getting spam, sued the company for $25 an email, and won." See also Bennett Haselton's anti-spam page, where he has details on "pursuing the anti-spam lawsuits on four separate fronts." (Those lawsuits were mentioned a few months back.)

Comments

Funny

[Wind_Walker]

It cracks me up that this guy, in part, was suing for the amount of time that it took him to read the e-mail, decide it was spam, and delete it.

Then, he gets into litigation that takes several weeks of his time, demanding nothing for it.

This is a small-town lawyer who wanted to make a name for himself, and the Slashdot crew obliged him.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

I would sue, but....

[Apreche]

I would sue all the people that send me spam, but you know what. I don't get any. I've had the same e-mail address for almost 2 years, it has an alias or two also, and not one spammer has gotten ahold of it yet. Why is this? I'm not an idiot. I don't use the address book. I do use PGP. I remove myself from any and all non-spam newletters and announcements I don't want. And I don't put my e-mail in public places where spammers would look to pick it up. As far as I'm concerned if you get spammed, it's your fault.

However, we should still punish those who surf the net collecting e-mail addresses and spamming away. But while spamming is still a problem, deal with it and don't be an idiot.