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Dutch Case Says Email Harvesting Illegal

Posted by Hemos on from the no-legal-no-mo' dept.

leomekenkamp writes "According to the /. readers there is probably something good as well as something bad in what a Dutch judge had to say in the case of E-mailgids versus NTS: NTS was convicted of illegally harvesting e-mail addresses for spam purposes from the e-mailgids site. According to the judge NTS was guilty because they did not act according to the terms of usage that are on the e-mailgids site, but were bound to them, even though they did not specifically have to click an 'I agree'; the terms of use are clearly mentioned on the main index page, and that was enough for the judge. Unfortunately all links are in Dutch..."

5 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Dangerous Precedent by Alethes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    but were bound to them, even though they did not specifically have to click an 'I agree'

    How many of you would like to be bound to an EULA even if you didn't click an 'I agree'?

  2. Google & Harvesting by Xner · · Score: 3, Interesting
    So, is Google illegal too, when it crawls the Web without obeying conditions written on some WWW page with an Accept button?

    We have a well-established protocol that allows site operators to tell webspider operators that they would prefer them to stay away: the robots.txt.

    I imagine that if a dutch counterpart google had an indexbot that did not respect the contents of robots.txt and violated the conditions of a certain site, they could be successfully sued under this new ruling.
    On the other hand, if the indexbot "plays nice" and the site owners forgot to set up the robots.txt, the judge will probably rule in favour of the defendant.

    I do not like this ruling a bit, and being in the Netherlands i fear it might be cause for concern. But frankly, overreacting does no-one any good.

    --
    Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
  3. Re:What's good about this? by leomekenkamp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I certainly understand your line of reasoning since you are a US citizen. Here in The Netherlands judges have a different way of looking at law than where you come from, especially regarding contracts (IANAL, but IHSFWSL (I have some friends who studied law). In this case for instance, the judge found it perfectly acceptable that e-mailgids put the 'do not abuse our email addresses, they are for personal use only' clause in. That same judge would have probably whiped the floor with a 'you are not allowed to copy anything of our site' clause. Why? Because it is rediculous, and a judge over here knows it.

    --
    Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
  4. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service by qwijibrumm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If I put up a sign at the front of my store saying "No Shirt No Shoes No Service" It is understood that a term of using my store is wearing a shirt and shoes. If you don't abide by my terms, I can refuse you service. We didn't sign an agreement. I hardly see how this is different. (That is, in general principles for all you nitpickers out there.)

    --
    I wish there was some there was some way that I could be outside playing basketball, in the rain, and not get wet.
  5. reverse Dimitry Skylarov by capoccia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    so can the spam king be arrested if he ever travels to the netherlands?