Always remember that the word “fan” has its roots in the word “fanatic”. And this is exemplified by the behaviour of Allan Carlson, a Los Angeles resident who is an avid fan of Philadelphia’s baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Apparently Carlson had issues with the way that the Phillies’ management…

A Washington state Court of Appeals has ruled this week that police do not need a warrant to access and search the contents of an employee’s office-owned PC. All that is needed is the employer’s permission. This in the case of an employee who used his work PC to access…

Microsoft has won a $7.4million judgement against a Tuscon, Arizona spammer. Glenn Hannifin, the ‘proprietor’ of U Save Depot, was accused by Microsoft of sending millions of pieces of spam hawking everything from software to leather jackets. The software offered included copies of Microsoft Office, discounted to a fraction of…

The real Spam King is Sanford Wallace, who has been around in one form or another for well over a decade. It was Wallace’s CyberPromotions against which many a spam lawyer first cut their spam litigation teeth.

The United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, dealt the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a blow today when it reversed a lower court ruling which ordered internet service provider Charter to comply with an RIAA demand that Charter turn over the information of Charter customers who were using…

Some people are sick. Really sick. But Christopher Pierson, of London, England really takes the cake. Pierson, a 40-year-old father of two (oh my, his poor children), was arrested and arraigned yesterday for sending spam to those known to be looking for lost loved ones, in the wake of last…

Happy New Year, Californians! In addition to a brand new year, you’ve got a brand new anti-spyware law! The new law, signed in September by Governor Schwarzenneger, took effect on January 1st, and makes it illegal to install software which takes control of another’s computer without their knowledge, and has…

A U.S. Federal Court has ruled this week that the State of Minnesota (and by extension all states) cannot regulate Internet telephone usage, known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), in the same way that the states presently regulate traditional phone lines and usage. This is bound to be good…

LokiTorrent, one of the latest targets of the Motion Picture Association of America’s legal crackdown on filesharing sites using the BitTorrent technology to allow users to download copyrighted movies, has vowed to fight the lawsuit, and is asking for donations to a legal fund to help defray an estimated $30,000…

January 8th, 2005, is the deadline for Windows users to file a claim against Microsoft under the settlement in the class-action lawsuit on behalf of several California plaintiffs against the software giant. The settlement, arising from a lawsuit in which it was claimed that Microsoft had violated California’a anti-trust law…

Dutch telecom regulator OPTA has announced a crack down against several violators of EU anti-spam standards, including against both individuals and small businesses accused of spamming. EU (European Union) anti-spam standards are generally much tougher and tighter than are those in the United States, and include a requirement that recipients…

Earlier this week we told you that the former AOL employee who stole the email addresses of 92 million AOL users, and then sold them to a spammer for $100,000, was due in Federal court and was going to plead “guilty” to charges that he violated CAN-SPAM. It was anticipated…

Jerry Smathers, a former AOL employee who first made the news by stealing more than 92 million AOL user email addresses, and selling them to spammers, is now facing up to two years in prison for his misdeed. Due in court in New York on Tuesday, it is anticipated that…

We’ve all heard of AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Earthlink. And Aunty has noted many times on these pages the lawsuits which they have each, and together, instituted against spammers over the course of this past year. Good on ya, says Aunty. But it isn’t just big, well-known ISPs who can…

Forget upskirting and downblousing. What do you call it when you take a video of yourself during an..um…intimate moment – with a camera phone for chrissakes? How about this one: what do you call it when you take a video of yourself during an intimate moment with a camera phone,…