Court Rules WHOIS Privacy Illegal For Spammers

Unequivocal writes "Spammers hiding behind a WHOIS privacy service have been found in violation of CAN-SPAM. It probably won't stop other spammers from hiding (what can?), but at least it adds another arrow in the legal quiver for skewering the bottom feeders. Quoting from the article: 'A recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has determined that using WHOIS privacy on domains may be considered "material falsification" under federal law... Although the ruling does not make use of WHOIS privacy illegal, it does serve as a clear message from the court that coupling the use of privacy services with intentional spamming will likely result in a violation of the CAN-SPAM act. This is an important decision that members of the domain community should refer to prior to utilizing a privacy shield.'"

Comments

Re:Hmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Try the -1 Overrated button

Re:Problem

[girlintraining]

Although the ruling does not make use of WHOIS privacy illegal, it does serve as a clear message from the court that coupling the use of privacy services with intentional spamming will likely result in a violation of the CAN-SPAM act.

Using bold lettering to make a point makes you look like an ass and does nothing but make your post harder to read. That said, remember that spam is defined by the act as "any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose)."

So even if I offer a legitimate service online -- advertising it via e-mail is subject to the CAN-SPAM act. Now, take that a step further -- what if I'm offering a web anonymization service? That goes on for awhile, no problem, until one day some pedophile uses the service and it makes headlines. Now a bunch of church organizations want to lynch the service provider (hi!) for providing a legitimate service that was used for illegitimate means. The natural reaction would be to protect yourself by not publishing your address, phone number, or office locations. It makes no sense to do so anyway, since your service is entirely online and requires no physical interaction with customers. But now you're left in the difficult position of -- how do you advertise? There are lots of things that are unpopular to advertise and invite criticism, but are nonetheless legitimate businesses.

Not all of us have a large corporation to hide behind -- an anonymity of the crowd as it were. So it harms individuals and small businesses who wish to solicit business that may be controversial.