Spam Links Blog

Anti-spam victory offers argument to protect blacklists

Joe Jared was sued in the US by Pallorium for placing them on a blacklist and allegedly causing them damages. The judge ruled in favour of Joe, stating that "any good faith attempt to restrict access to spam would be protected" under the Communications Decency Act.

As the firm who represented Joe say,

The victory against Pallorium is gratifying, but there is a larger issue here. Pallorium argued that the Communication Decency Act was designed to punish spammers, but not to protect spam blockers. It argued that a party that strives to block spam is only protected if the spam filter is content based. In other words, if the filter can successfully block offensive e-mail of a specific type, that effort is protected. We disagreed, and argued that spam is inherently objectionable, and that a filter designed to block spam -- regardless of content -- is protected. The court agreed with our position. And while this is a trial court decision and therefore affords no precedent, such victories bolster the fight against spam.