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Microsoft Files 15 Lawsuits Against Spammers

Posted by timothy on from the better-use-of-lawyers dept.

Popsikle writes "A Seattle Paper reports that 'Microsoft Corp. announced it has filed 15 lawsuits against alleged e-mail spammers in Washington state and the United Kingdom on Tuesday.' It states the tough anti-spam laws in UK and Washington allows ISP's to sue spammers. This could be a good test of the new anti-spam laws." There's coverage on CNN as well. Microsoft has picked a good venue for such a case.

4 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Gorilla Against Spam!! (GAS) by jkrise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's amazing how while suing spammers and getting all the good PR, MS is
    also blocking anti-spam legislation.
    http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne ws/business/61 13665.htm

    "We have personnel around the world engaged in those battles, and we are tapping that expertise and working with these people to fight spam as well." Can't they do the simple exercise of examining their own user's spam - hotmail users can give billions in a day.

    If hotmail users could even get $5 per spam, they'd be richer than Tiger Woods.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Gorilla Against Spam!! (GAS) by Ethidium · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >It's a fucking forwarding alias. I CANNOT SEND MAIL FROM IT.

      Yes you can. Just about any mailer lets you set the "from" address to whatever you want.

      >He's obviously a fucking liar and DID buy a scavenged email CD from someone, or else they did a web harvest themselves.

      Unless somebody else opted in from your mail address. Or you accidentally entered it on a web form and forgot to uncheck the "opt-in" checkbox.

      This kind of ire and anti-corporate attitude is not in any way constructive. Big corporations are a permanent part of our economic system, and in many cases, provide useful goods and services that we all enjoy (major airlines, for instance). I'll be the first to admit that in some cases the corps well overstep their bounds and need to be put in their place (cf Microsoft, SCO, RIAA); but the vast majority of them are in it to make money, which they do best by serving the customer's interest. And when you have a personal problem with a corp, it usually doesn't mean the corp is bad, it means somebody isn't doing their job. Call customer service, write the CEO, and usually things work out in the end.

      If nothing else, when K-Mart spams you, you know whom to sue. The big problem with most spam is if you don't know where it's coming from, you're powerless to stop it.

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      \
  2. Great but... by wiggys · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is really great and everything, but they can only sue the spammers they can track down and identify.

    AFAIK, some spammers go to great lengths to keep their identities hidden (hi-jacking other people's computer systems etc) so although the threat of legal action will be a big deterrent there's always going to be spam unless we can come up with a technological solution to stop it.

    --

    Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

  3. Just because there's a fight... by SpotBug · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Doesn't mean it has to be Good vs. Evil.

    Fights can be Evil vs. Evil, too.

    --
    cygnuhchur