SpamCop Mention on NEWS.COM

[Chris Parker]

http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5210518.html?tag=nefd.top

A Northern California District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent SpamCop, an antispam operation, from interfering with messages sent by alleged junk e-mailer OptInRealBig.com.

The court granted the restraining order last Tuesday, and it is scheduled to reconvene May 20. E-mail server company IronPort Systems, owner of SpamCop, filed an appeal Monday asking the judge to dissolve the order before the hearing date, on the grounds that it breaches first amendment rights and damages the company's operations.

The dispute involves practices of SpamCop, an operator of an antispam blocklist that third-parties reference to block bogus mail. SpamCop fields people's complaints about unwanted mail and their senders and uses that information to list the offending Internet Protocol addresses used to send the messages.

Scott Richter, the self-professed "spam King" and president of e-mail marketing company OptIn, sued IronPort and SpamCop on April 29 for allegedly interfering with his business and causing his Internet service providers to block his company's e-mail. He also charged SpamCop with not disclosing the identity of people who complain about its e-mail, thereby aiding potential violations of the Can-spam Act, which requires the removal of people from future mailings if they so choose.

"This whole system is done in the dark--we don't know who's complaining, what the substance of the complaint is, and there's no opportunity to correct the complaint" to comply with provisions in the Can-spam Act that require a company to remove people from a mailing list, said Steven Richter, an attorney for OptIn.

"We're asking for the right to handle complaints."

The San Francisco court issued a temporary restraining order that prevents SpamCop from transmitting or sending "complaints it forwards to third-parties regarding (OptIn and its subsidiaries, divisions, companies, etc.) to ISPs," according to the filing. It also stops SpamCop from "removing the e-mail addresses from complaints it receives regarding plaintiff."

Representatives for IronPort, based in San Bruno, Calif., declined to comment.

Industry analysts expressed concern over the order, even though it does not necessarily indicate how the case will turn out.

"More troubling is what this means for the individuals who submit complaints to SpamCop with the expectation that SpamCop will not reveal their e-mail addresses to the people they are accusing of spamming," said Anne Mitchell, CEO of the think tank Institute for spam and Internet Public Policy. "This is, after all, a private enterprise, not a branch of the government and certainly not a court of law, and there is no right to confront your accuser in this arena."

OptIn, based in Colorado, is embroiled in numerous lawsuits. In December, software giant Microsoft and the New York State Attorney General's office filed complaints against the company for allegedly sending millions of unsolicited commercial e-mail, specifically to members of Hotmail, Microsoft's free Web-based mail service.

Scott Richter and Synergy6, an e-mail marketing company based in New York, were among the defendants named in the six suits. Richter also has been named one of the world's largest spammers by ROKSO, the Register of Known spam Operations, which is listed on Spamhaus, an antispam and consumer advocacy organization.

In an interview, Richter said that OptIn is in settlement talks with Microsoft and the New York office of the attorney general.

He also said that his company is a legitimate commercial e-mail service, in compliance with the Can-spam Act. He said that the company obtains permission from all the people on its mailing list to send commercial messages, which include low-rate mortgage loans and personal grooming products, and allows those recipients to opt out of future mailings.

He argued that SpamCop reports spam to the wrong people--the ISPs (Internet service providers)--rather than the companies that send the e-mail.

"We're not going after IronPort because of their blocking. We're going after IronPort for the harassment," he said. "We're going to go after many antispam groups."

[dra007]

This may be one of sleezy Richter spam, first he wanted me to take enlargement pills, now he wants me to clean my colon:

90% of all sickness and disease begins in an

UNCLEAN COLON!

Since "Death begins in the colon," you should find out HOW to clean your colon.

Toxins and waste build up in your colon just like they do in the pipes of your home. Both demand immediate attention or the results can be disastrous!

No wonder Colon cancer is second only to lung cancer in terms of cancer deaths in the U.S., claiming the lives of nearly 50,000 men and women annually.

Want more info on how to cleanse your colon? Click here and I'll send it to you.

*********************************************************************

To receive no more mail, click here and send.

Please do not reply to this email, as we will not see it. Click on the links above.

I will certainly report this as spam!

[Merlyn]

This may be one of sleezy Richter spam, first he wanted me to take enlargement pills, now he wants me to clean my colon:

90% of all sickness and disease begins in an

UNCLEAN COLON!

Since "Death begins in the colon," you should find out HOW to clean your colon.

Toxins and waste build up in your colon just like they do in the pipes of your home. Both demand immediate attention or the results can be disastrous!

No wonder Colon cancer is second only to lung cancer in terms of cancer deaths in the U.S., claiming the lives of nearly 50,000 men and women annually.

Want more info on how to cleanse your colon? Click here and I'll send it to you.

*********************************************************************

To receive no more mail, click here and send.

Please do not reply to this email, as we will not see it. Click on the links above.

I will certainly report this as spam!

No Snotty Scotty doesn't do colons (yet)

Your colon spammer is Ryan Champion / AMR Ventures

See: http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/sbl.lasso?query=SBL14846

[StevenUnderwood]

That's all right, they can send my reports because I don't munge my address.

I have never opted in to any of his lists and get plenty. I used to ask (from a separate address) where they got my name, and they did not answer but did add that address to their spamming list, which I have since dropped. This was long before I found spamcop.

Go spamcop, go spamcop

[Farelf]

A Northern California District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent SpamCop, an antispam operation, from interfering with messages sent by alleged junk e-mailer OptInRealBig.com.

The ideals of "blind justice" and "judicial innocence" are one thing but, back in the real world, one has to wonder how Richter's lawyers found a judge he hadn't spammed. Which begs the question, "Is there room on the good judge's IP address for the rest of us?"

[agsteele]

Hopefully the powers-that-be will be able to keep us in touch with the practical effects of this temporary restraint so we have good sense of how our reporting and, for most =of us, filtering, is being affected.

I doubt the specifics of the case can be discussed :angry:

Andrew

[turetzsr]

...This is truly scary. Were I a judge and a homicide case came before me involving the murder of Richter and/ or this judge who issued the restraining order, I would dismiss it as justifiable homicide.