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Spammers Lose Court Battle Against Univ. of Texas

Posted by timothy on from the eyes-of-texas-aren't-upon-you dept.

voma writes "The University of Texas didn't violate the constitutional rights of an online dating service when it blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday. White Buffalo Ventures, which operates LonghornSingles.com, had appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying it had complied with all anti-spam laws."

9 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. right to your machine by cerelib · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the only way to block something is if you have control of a machine that it is going to. if it is your machine than you have all of the rights in the world to block anything that comes in or tries to go out. if you have control of the machine by less than legal means, well that's another issue.

  2. Devil's Advocate by Shkuey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the school sold all these addresses to a spammer, presumably for the purpose of having spam sent to them and then blocked all the messages? I'd probably be annoyed too. Of course, it is the students who should be even more angered that the university would sell them out like that.

    1. Re:Devil's Advocate by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 3, Insightful
      However I cannot get a copy of my own information from my univerity without paying them, so I find it hard to believe they would just hand it out to a company without any incentive.
      Know any Perl? Create a spider to crawl through the student directory. Many colleges and universities have student directories or faculty directories with no check to make sure you're affiliated with the university. You might have to guess names but how hard is that? Go down a list and search for Anderson, Andreason, Anders, etc. Or just search by email addresses. When I was at the University of Buffalo they were a students initials. So run through the list: aaa@buffalo.edu, aab@buffalo.edu. It would be elementary to iterate through the permutations and get all the student data you can.

      Still don't believe me? Try going to UB's Directory. You can do wildcard searchs. Search by last name, type in "a*". Repeat for all 26 letters of the alphabet. Get a spider to do it. It's scary how easy it is to access personal data -- the first link contains all sorts of information about a student: mailing address, phone number, etc. If you were intent on stealing an identity you'd be 90% on the way there.
  3. When and where by hackstraw · · Score: 3, Insightful


    do "online dating services" have constitutional rights?

    I need to speak with a corporate lawyer to find out what is required of me to incorporate myself so I can get some of these rights that the constitution alludes to.

  4. 1st Amendment = Free SPEECH by yellowbkpk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The first amendment gives you the right to free SPEECH, not free listeners.

    Just because you say it doesn't mean everyone (or anyone) has to listen to you.

  5. constitutional rights? by yoyo81 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The University of Texas didn't violate the constitutional rights of an online dating service "

    Since when do dating services have constitutional rights? Isn't it convenient that corporations can cherry pick when they want to be corporations and when they want to be individuals?

  6. Looks perfectly legit to me... by sgar · · Score: 4, Insightful
    At the time, UT issued a cease and desist order, but White Buffalo refused to comply. So UT blocked all the e-mail messages from White Buffalo's IP address.
    So lets get this straight, UT issues a cease and desist which the company refused to comply with. In response, UT took care of the ceasing and desisting for them. Don't really see the problem here.
    --
    If there is anything more important than my ego around here, I want it caught and shot now.
  7. Right on! by rblum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a first step towards acknowledging that corporations should have no rights - at least not unless they're willing to take on responsibilities too.

    (Yes, I'm a hopeless optimist...)

  8. Re:Constitutional questionability by pete6677 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since when does the constitution provide the right to require the government to help you deliver an unlimited amount of commercial advertising? For the last time, SPAM IS NOT A FREE SPEECH ISSUE! Popular message or not, no mail administrator is required to deliver mail. The spammer is not being restricted from sending mail at all. Free speech does not entitle the speaker to a free platform.