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Spamhaus to Ignore $11.7M Judgement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-say-it's-spam-and-i-say-the-hell-with-it dept.

6031769 writes, "As reported on CNet, Spamhaus is choosing to ignore a judgement of $11.7M against them in an uncontested trial in an Illinois court. According to Spamhaus, the judgement has no impact on them, since they are a British organization." From the Spamhaus reply to the judgment: "Default judgments obtained in US county, state or federal courts have no validity in the UK and can not be enforced under the British legal system... As spamming is illegal in the UK, an Illinois court ordering a British organization to stop blocking incoming Illinois spam in Britain goes contrary to UK law which orders all spammers to cease sending spam in the first place."

2 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Color me confused. by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm no lawyer, so can somebody explain to me how a court can say that Spamhaus, a service that customers voluntarily sign up for, cannot index IP addresses theat users wish to block? There is nothing Spamhaus does that a local mail server cannot do, they just already have a blacklist for you. Spamhaus is just, "Hey, don't trust these guys."

    That's like saying I can't go to Consumer Reports and get an opinion on what car to buy.

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
  2. Re:wow by theckhd · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They are preventing an illegal acting being commited in our country. Why should they give a shit?
    Now let's pretend that the plaintiff in the case wasn't a spam company with a stupid name, but instead is a regular user who gets put on the list by mistake. From what I've read about Spamhaus, they tend to "not give a shit" in that sort of situation either, which is unfortunate. A good example why vigilante justice isn't always a good thing.

    An even more interesting quandry: What if a large, well-recognized organization with deep pockets gets put on the list by mistake in the same fashion? Any bets as to how long it would take before they get removed?