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Spamhaus Responds To Spammers' Lawsuit

ShaiHulud-23 writes "A suit was recently filed by EMarketersAmerica.org, a fledgling secret organization of spammers, against the Spamhaus Project, (and other anti-spam sites) seeking to prevent the publication of the anonymous plaintiffs' IP addresses in the Spamhaus Block List (SBL). The suit requested a response from the named defendants, and Spamhaus director Steve Linford has provided one, dismantling the spammers' case point by point."

10 of 442 comments (clear)

  1. Crap, my first story has a typo by ShaiHulud-23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Should be "defendants"

    Also, here's some amusing dirt on the lawyer who filed the suit (and registered the EMarketersAmerica domain.)

  2. Obligatory Google Cache by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're used to fighting spam...not a slashdot...so here's the cache. Google Cache

  3. Re:IANAL... by Cramer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, having delt with one spammer in particular (yes, listed by Spamhaus), I'll just say they are very open liars. This individual said -- and I wished I'd been recording the call "for quality assurance purposes" :-) -- Spamhaus was a company run by one of his competitors. We had to mute the phone for a few minutes. They insist they are not sending "spam" -- even tho' I have spam reports from every batch of crap they sent.

  4. Make your feelings known.... by TechnoGrl · · Score: 5, Informative

    Make sure you make your feelings known about spam to the originator of this lawsuit, lawyer Mark Felstein.

    FELSTEIN & ASSOCIATES, P.A.
    Attorneys for EMarketersAmerica.org, Inc.
    555 South Federal Highway, Suite 450
    Boca Raton, Florida 33432
    (561) 367-7990 Phone
    (561) 367-7980 Facsimile
    mark~ EMarketersAmerica.org

    BY :~ :~,_
    Mark E. Felstein, Esq.
    FBN: 192139

    --
    ----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
  5. respectively interpret differently by Ptahian · · Score: 5, Informative
    With all due respect, I disagree with the portion of Mr. Linford's reply:
    The SBL is published free of charge and does not block the transmission of email, it specifically blocks the receipt of junk email by computers belonging to SBL users.
    In fact the list, does not block receipt. It can be used by the actual postmaster to facilitate that process, but they could do something else like filter the email into a "spam" mailbox for each user, or just gather statistics, etc. It's information nothing more nothing less. -Ptah
  6. Re:Can anyone answer me this? by Ironica · · Score: 5, Informative

    How can spammers sue anti-spam list maintainers?

    In the US, you can file a suit for anything. You risk countersuit and charges for frivolous lawsuits for filing blatantly false and harrassing lawsuits, which is what happened in this case.

    EMarketersAmerica.org claims in their suit, among other things, that:

    - Spamhaus and SPEWS are run by the same people.
    - Steve Linford's brother, who lives in Italy and knows nothing about Spamhaus, is one of those people running both sites.
    - Spamhaus has an office in the US.
    - Spamhaus sells products.
    - Spamhaus' products "destroy" and "intercept" legitimate email transmissions.
    - Spamhaus has *appropriated* IPs belonging to EMarketersAmerica member organizations for their own use and profit. (Tell me, how on Earth do you do that? I want to steal MS's block...)

    They make many other false statements, but those are the doozies.

    These are people who make their living by digitally date-raping whoever they can find. (And, yes, I use that word... please, I get emails about enlarging my member on a daily basis, and I'm a WOMAN, for crying out loud. At least send me breast enlargement ads instead.) They have no compunction about breaking more laws by filing a frivolous and false lawsuit in hopes that it will scare someone off.

    The good news is, Steve Linford, if he has the time and money to do so, now has an excellent countersuit, which could make a lot of those spammer's documents public record. Big ifs, but stranger things have happened.

    --
    Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
  7. Support the defendants! Donate money to legal fund by tsvk · · Score: 5, Informative

    The SpamCon Foundation has set up a legal fund to aid spamfighters that need legal assistance.

    The defendants of this particular EMarketersAmerica suit also benefit from and endorse this fund.

  8. Re:They're not very good yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not to secret organization.... the South Florida Business Journal has been doing some digging on EMarketersAmerica and have a good story on them at: http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/s tories/2003/05/12/story1.html

  9. Why bother with the small fish? by csguy314 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go straight to the source! Eddy Marin 621 NW 53rd Street Suite 135 Boca Raton, Florida 33487 T: 561-999-9850 F: 561-995-8791 Toll Free: 877-317-1568 E-mail eddy@oneroute.net

    --
    This is left as an exercise for the reader.
  10. Re:They're not very good yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thinking back to the Alan Ralsky incident...

    Emarketersamerica.org
    555 South Federal Highway
    Suite 450
    Boca Raton, FL 33432

    T: 561.367.7990
    F: 561.367.7980

    www.emarketersamerica.org
    admin@emarketersameri ca.org

    Not suggesting anything at all, really. ;)