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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."

6 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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?

  3. Re:Devil's Advocate by Kiaser+Wilhelm+II · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The school can't do much, it is public information (Freedom of Information Act, etc) unless you explicitly tell them not to release it.

    Of course, institutions are really bad about this.. My high school, despite my multiple requests not to, released my information to all sorts of local corporations for them to spam me with prom/senior pictures/etc. related junk mail.

    --
    Lord High Crapflooder The Right Honourable Vlad Craig Esther McDavenpherson III
    Destroyer of Mercatur.Net
  4. LonghornSingles.com by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    That'd be VistaSingles.com now, thank you.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. Spammer logic by dazed-n-confused · · Score: 5, Informative

    The spammers "legally obtained the email addresses from the University" via an open records request for a list of utex.edu email addresses, then pretended that this meant they'd paid for the "right" to spam anyone associated with the University of Texas. More details here: Texas Attorney General's Office.

  6. FoIA is only part of it - FERPA is the rest by csoto · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Family and Educational Right to Privacy Act trumps FoI at public universities. It stipulates rules about disclosure of information that students have stated are to be protected. The University of Texas does a very good job of protecting this data, at least in the groups that I've worked with.

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    There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom