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First Lawsuits Filed under Missouri's No-Spam Law
darksoulz writes "The St. Louis Business Journal is reporting that Jay Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, has filed the first lawsuits under the new no-spam law against two Florida spammers. The law doesn't totally prohibit spam, it just requires that the subject line be tagged to let consumers know that it is an advertisement. One of the lawsuit recipients even managed to spam an address maintained by the attorney general's office."
Nixon files first suits under state's No Spam law
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has filed the first two lawsuits using the new state anti-spam law against a Florida man and Fundetective.com of Boca Raton, Fla.
Nixon said the defendents violated the state law, which went into effect Aug. 28, by sending spam to Missouri e-mail accounts without the required labeling, and by sending spam to those accounts after being asked to stop. Under the law, spam must be labeled with the phrase ADV: in the first four characters in the subject line or ADV: ADLT if it contains adult material.
The first suit was filed against Phillip Nixon of Palm Beach, Fla., who allegedly sent at least five unsolicited commercial e-mails to an address maintained by the Attorney General's office, nospam@moago.org. The messages were not labeled as required and did not stop even after being directed to stop.
The second suit was filed against Fundetective.com, which sent spam messages advertising payday loans and other services. The messages were not labeled as required.
In the suit, Nixon is asking the St. Louis City Circuit Court to issue injunctions to prevent the defendants from further violating the law, and civil penalties of up to $5,000 for each violation.