Landon J. Dirgo wrote:
An Idea occurred to me while reading the article. Congress is always trying to pass laws that prevent spam but that will never work. I think we all need to get on the phone and call our representatives and senators and tell them to pass a law that shields Blacklists and companies like SpamCop so they don't have to deal with the threat of lawsuits constantly.
I don't think that's the best route to follow. I'd much prefer to see blacklists (situated in the U.S.) defended on First Amendment grounds, so that publishing a blacklist receives Constitutional protections. Having Congress pass an act like you describe suggests that, absent such legislation, blacklists might be a controversial activity. I would strongly argue blacklists deserve the same protections as any other "publisher" and need no special protections from Congress.
I also doubt Congress would pass any such blanket legislation because the direct marketing industry would put up an enormous fuss. (They were very influential in the drafting of both the do-not-call and CAN-SPAM acts).
More to the point, the suit against SpamCop doesn't address the issue of blacklists at all. According to
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3348241
OptinRealBig is complaining about Spamcop's system for notifying abuse desks:
"In the suit, OptInRealBig claims SpamCop sent complaints about its e-mails to OptInRealBig's ISPs, causing them to terminate their relationships with the company. OptInRealBig's complaint also alleges SpamCop interfered with the company's contracts with its customers, because it kept [OptInRealBig] from sending e-mails on their behalf."
It's the practice of notifying ISPs that they object to, not the blacklists.
Just the other day, someone observed that Spamhaus operates in the UK which has much more "liberal" (i.e., pro-plaintiff) libel and slander laws, yet they have never been successfully prosecuted for anything. See:
http://www.spamhaus.org/legal/index.html
Of course, the cost of defending oneself against barrages of nuisance suits can be heavy in terms of both time and money, but anyone who chooses to set up a service like SpamCop should know in advance such activities would be a likely target for lawsuits.
Peter
