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Megaspammer Monsterhut Loses On Appeal

Werehatrack writes "Much jubilation was expressed in news.admin.net-abuse.email when it was learned that the long-running court battle between PaeTec and Monsterhut had reached a definitive conclusion on Friday with a New York appeals court finding in favor of PaeTec which finally allowed PaeTec to pull the plug on their least-loved customer's connectivity. PaeTec was actually somewhat restrained in its news announcement on its own website, simply noting that they had won and that they had disconnected Monsterhut."

14 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Lunacy. by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nah, you're confusing litigation with justice. If we were great at justice, the spammers would have been tortured to death (now there's a job that could pay minimum wage and still have people jumping at the chance).

    If were great at litigation however, this case would have dragged on for a year, costing far more in legal fees than it ever deserved to. Oh wait.. that's what happened.

  2. Re:Lunacy. by Latent+IT · · Score: 2, Funny

    By George, you're right!

    Even my Grisham collection agrees with you. And six dollars an hour to torture spammers to death? Well, okay, I only have a $20... I'll take three hours. ;p

  3. Grr... by Jay+Maynard · · Score: 1, Funny

    I submitted this story this time last night, and got rejected.

    --
    Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
  4. I wish I could personally have pulled that plug! by danro · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wish I could have been the one the one who pulled that plug...
    Man, that must have felt good...

    It probably went down something like this:
    Lucky employee> "Bite my shiny metal ass, spammers!"
    *sound of cat5 cable violently ripped out of a router*

    --

    "First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
  5. Re:class action suits by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 3, Funny

    As much as I would love to sue people who spam me it's not like I have the time or money to do so.

    Exactly. I currently have someone sending spam and faking my email address as the From: address. I could surely win a court case against them, but I don't have the time or money to do it. Laws are not the solution.

  6. 12 inch penises are illegal in the US? by wackybrit · · Score: 2, Funny

    Today I got a porn spam entitled 'Illegal in the USA!' and inside it had a list of what 'illegal' stuff they had on their site. The list went like this:

    Animal sex!
    Lolitas sucking
    Extreme facials
    12 inch+ cocks

    I know American men aren't very well endowed, but are cocks over 12 inches long actually illegal in the US? ;-)

  7. It's not a true victory yet... by Dimensio · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...because the Monsterhut spammers are still alive. I don't mean connected, I mean that the people behind the outfit haven't been executed. The spam problems will not stop until it is legal to kill confirmed spammers.

  8. I can see it now... by thogard · · Score: 2, Funny


    Wanted: Hosting ISP with lots of connectivity. Perfer a company with small legal team and not very deep pockets. We Promise [TM] not to Spam [TM].

  9. Re:The Original /. story... by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 5, Funny

    To me, that sounds like a great reason to start an upgrade on your router infrastructure. Of course, the only router that actually needs upgrading is the one Monsterhunt is connected to. Did I mention that the tech installing the new router accidentaly dropped it, twice. Then in the process of picking it up, a forklift backed over it. Oh, Cisco routers are in short supply, it'll take 3 months to get another. We will use a win95 box with 2 NICs and some clothesline as a router and cabling till then. Oh, darn, we gotta do hourly reboots. And because we are loading every service known to man, it takes at least 55 minutes to complete booting.

    I'm not trying to be funny here, but if there is a cat-v cable next to my desk, sometimes my chair will accidentaly pull it out. Hey, sometimes routers need to be upgraded. Sometimes, while pulling new cable, the older cable gets frayed and burned.

    If you have a cable in my company, and I don't like you...you are hella-fucked. No matter what anyone says. I will come up with a good reason, I will pull your cable, and (if the TOS requires avalibility) I will refund your money with a big apology.

    --
    I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
  10. Unless they're morons.... by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 5, Funny

    They probably just disabled their VLAN. Not as satisfying, but, generally, people who go ripping CAT-5 cable out of patch panels like a wild monkey don't last too long as network administrators.

    There are some exceptions to this rule, however.

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
    1. Re:Unless they're morons.... by sharkey · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...people who go ripping CAT-5 cable out of patch panels like a wild monkey don't last too long as network administrators.

      Truly. If he were a true networking professional, he would have gently disconnected the cable running to Monsterhut, and connected it to the 3-phase power terminated in the comms room just for this sort of occasion. Then blamed it on solar flares shifting the Moon's orbit, causing massive tidal shifts that have resulted in huge power spikes from the seaborn relay stations.

      And, oh, what was your username, password, ATM number and PIN, by the way?

      --

      --
      "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  11. Poetic Justice by CleverNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know what would be a great way to deal with spammers?

    Tie them up, and flog them, Inquisition-style. Every 10th hit or so, you'd stop, and tell them that this flogging isn't really torture, because they specifically asked for the flogging by sending out spam. Then you'd ask them if they'd like to "opt-out" of the flogging. When they said "yes," you could take it to mean "Yes, please flog me some more." Then you could get 5 more guys to come over and flog them too.

    As a matter of fact, we could have an army of "Flog-bots" which would seek them out, and bring them to us.

    Now that's poetic justice.

    1. Re:Poetic Justice by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Funny
      Spam isn't just the emails you get for free pr0n, or opt-in... It's those people online who also get your email address because you talk to them *once* online, and they think that it's the "cool thing to do" by emailing you with every little tiny thing that they *think* is funny.

      So in addition to flogging the companies who send spam, it's about time that all those forward junkies get flogged too.. Here's how:

      You ask them to think of a number between one and ten. If the number is between 0-4, flog them that number of times, plus the year that they were born. Ask them to subtract the month they were born multiplied by the day that they were born. If they get the calculation correct, flog them that many times. If they get the calculation wrong, flog them twice as many times.

      Then ask them to think of someone that they want to be with. And tell them that this person will die unless this flogged person finds 10 other spammers to come and be flogged all the same.

      Tell them that Bill Gates/Michael Eisner (any other big exec) will personally give them a flogging if they go around saying that they'll get money in an email.

      --
      /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  12. ** "Godwin's law" invoked, this thread is over ** by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, it works on Usenet, why not /. ?

    Godwin's Law

    Sorry spam-boy, no fascist/nazi rants wanted here.