| Can an American judge take a British company offline?
Had a court in Illinois done what the winner of a case there desired, billions of spam emails could have begun landing in the inboxes of 650 million people all over the world - including the European Parliament, US Army, the White House and Microsoft - every day this month. The reason: Judge Charles Kocoras, of the district court of the northern district of Illinois, was asked to rule that a British company called Spamhaus, which runs a commercial spam-blocking service for 700 million users, should have its website taken away for failing to comply with an earlier court order - which was to stop blocking emails from e360Insight, a Chicago-based bulk emailing company. Spamhaus has for some time maintained that e360Insight belongs on its list of "known spammers"; in June, David Linhardt - the owner and operator of e360Insight - sued, asking for monetary damages and removal from Spamhaus's list.
The Capital Reserve Canada Ltd. Response to Recent Spam Emails
EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Capital Reserve Canada Ltd. ("CRC") (OTCBB:CRSVF) would like to comment further on the recent spam email message traffic to the public which has recommended the purchase of CRC's stock. CRC had previously placed a statement on its website that it has not initiated this or any other spam email campaign nor hired any public relations firm to do so. Such statement can be found at http://capitalreservecanada.com/News___Information.html. Under no circumstances has CRC or any person or group associated with CRC participated or acquiesced with this spam activity. CRC advises that it has not entered into any agreement, nor has it paid any party, to issue these emails. Also, CRC is attempting to determine the source of these spam emails, is consulting with its legal counsel to attempt to stop the spam emails and, if appropriate, will seek damages accordingly.
Canned meat maker loses Spam battle
THE MAKER of canned pork, Hormel Foods has lost a trademark battle over the word spam. Hormel wanted people to stop using its trademark word 'spam' on products that were used to stop unwanted email. Officially Hormel says that it does not object to use of this slang term to describe unsolicited commercial e-mail. However it does not like the use of the word "spam" as a trademark and to the use of its product image in association with that term. But it has issued several trademark disputes over the matter in the United States against such outfits SpamBop, Spam Arrest, and Spam Cube. According to Ibtimes, the EU's trademark body said that the outfit's claim that this was diluting its brand name was silly. It noted that when most people were using Google to search for spam related products, they were unlikely to be looking for canned spicy ham.
Disposable email tips up
THE IDENTITY PROTECTION concerned may breathe a breath of relief, for Anonymizer Inc has today let loose its latest product, the Anonymizer Nyms. Nyms allows users to create anonymous (surprised?) and disposable email addresses to work as a buffer against spam, worms, viruses, phishing scams and so on. Having created a Nyms email address, whenever there is incoming mail, users are allowed full control over it, the makers reckon. Users will be able to detect where the spam is coming from - and when a user has determined that an address is being shared with spammers, says Anonymizer, they can deactivate the Nyms account and stop their inbox from going spamtastic. Anonymizer's Nyms program redirects all incoming mail to a user's primary address, making it simpler than having to manage two, three or four email accounts.
Internet group welcomes hefty fine for spammer
The Western Australian Internet Association has welcomed hefty fines handed down to an East Perth company and its director for distributing massive amounts of spam email. The Federal Court found Wayne Robert Mansfield and his company, Clarity One, sent out hundreds of millions of unsolicited emails to promote his business marketing seminars. Mansfield was fined $1 million, while Clarity One was fined $4.5 million for breaking Australia's anti-spam laws. President of the WA Internet Association, Richard Keeves, says while the ruling will help to send a strong message to other spammers, it will do little to stop the practice. "Spam is not going to stop just because of this ruling. Most spam that we get in Australia comes from outside of Australia," he said. "But what we can do is start to control and look after our own backyard and so what this is all about is starting in our own backyard first." He says the hefty fines are a win for all Australian Internet users.
Spam filtering hit by legal issues
The legal issues that are affecting the Spamhaus are heating up. If Spamhaus were shut down, even temporarily, then the increase in spam that makes it around the Internet would be significant. Regardless of the figures and the discussions (including those on the Slashdot page for the story), any increase in spam would be a bad thing. I don't know what your email statistics are like, but for me about 98% of all the email I received in the last year is spam. An increase of any kind would be bad and there's been a recent splurge of spam in my inbox that has required some changes and improvements to my filters and techniques. Whatever the legal issues, and how they are resolved, we need as a worldwide community to get a better handle on stopping spam and its causes.
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