A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that the operators of online forums are notresponsible for remarks made by users of their forums, even if those remarks rise to the level of defamation. The case centered around the “Eye on Emerson” website, which purported to keep its eye on the…

Ohio Governor Bob Taft signed into law a new, tougher anti-spam law for Ohio this week. The new law makes illegal the sending of as little as five pieces of email where the origin of the email is either altered or hidden. And if the amount of such email sent…

Verizon Online is being sued by their subscribers for blocking incoming email from entire countries.

Two men headquartered in Florida who were selling fake Viagra and other bogus prescription drugs online, and spamming on the “pharmacy’s” behalf, have copped a plea and could get as much as 20 years in prison for their actions. It is alleged that Charles Naron and Stephen Lewis, both of…

Internet service provider Earthlink has announced that it has reached a settlement with two high-profile and extremely prolific spammers dubbed the “Alabama Spammers” for their penchant for using dial-ups in and around Birmingham, Alabama. Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, alledged to be part of a multi-state spam ring, were sued…

Jeffrey Lee Parsons, the teenager who unleased the MS Blaster worm variant “MS Blaster B” on the world, has plea bargained his way down to a relatively light eighteen months in jail, and ten months of community service. Parsons was facing up to 3-10 years in prison (reports vary) for…

This particular FTC action was of note because it was the first which was publicly noted to include charges under the McCain Amendment to CAN-SPAM, on which I worked, and which I like to refer to as the “vendor liability” section, although others call it the “advertiser accountability” section.

From Across the Pond, courtesy of Chris Hunter over at Spamfo: Christopher Pierson, the sick man who sent a hoax mail to tsunami victim’s friends and relatives, has been sentenced today to 6 months in prison. Spamfo published the article previously entitled ‘Man pleads guilty to sick Tsunami hoax emails’,…

It was the misfire heard around the world. The Register earlier this week reported that a German court had ruled that blocking email by content was illegal, stating that “The Higher Regional Court now has ruled that blocking email by content is unlawful as it is considered confidential in German…

William R. Trowbridge, of New York, and Michael Chicoine, of Texas, will be going from file sharing to cell sharing following their guilty pleas to Federal charges of using a peer-to-peer network. Oops, Aunty means of violating copyrights on peer-to-peer networks. Because of course just using a peer-to-peer network is…

This isn’t exactly double jeopardy, but somehow it ought to be. Bad enough to receive junk mail from a spammer – but then to receive a junk lawsuit as well? Ptooey! And it is exactly that with which Jay Stuler is dealing. Having received what he considered spam from Atriks,…

Georgia’s Internet citizenry got a treat yesterday as Governor Sonny Perdue introduced legislation aimed at making spamming the good citizens of Georgia (or, indeed, by the good citizens of Georgia) a criminal offense. The proposed legislation, known as the “Georgia Slam Spam E-mail Act” (gotta work on those acronyms, Mr….

Jeffrey Johnson may well consider this a fate worse than their locking him up and throwing away the key. I mean, which would you rather face: a life of freedom with no Internet, or life in the slammer with free Internet access. Of course, Johnson didn’t get to make that…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week has announced the first big bust of spammers under the so-called “plain brown wrapper” provisions of CAN-SPAM. The plain brown wrapper rules require that, in addition to the CAN-SPAM requirements for commercial email to which all commercial emailers are subject, email which is…

Is there a person among us who actually likes pop-up ads? I mean, who isn’t an advertiser on the popping end? No, I thought not. Unfortunately, like loud cellphones, cigars at outdoor bistros, and over-application of cheap perfume, while they are annoying as all get-out, they are not illegal. That…