Setting The Rules For ISPs And Spammers
from the contract-is-a-contract? dept
An interesting article from Declan McCullough about a lawsuit that will have an impact on a number of different spam-related issues. The case is about a guy who Earthlink cut off from his email account after accusing him (incorrectly) of spamming. Earthlink then continued to collect his email, rather than sending some sort of bounce to let senders know the account was inactive. The first issue is whether or not it was legal for Earthlink to just cut him off - which, according to their contract, it seems pretty clear it was. The second issue is whether they could keep those emails without letting people know the account had been canceled. I agree that this is a very bad policy, but I'm not sure what's illegal about it. Finally, the guy is suing Earthlink for libel - saying that by incorrectly putting him on their spammers list it was guilty of libel. The end result of this part may have the biggest impact - as it could set a precedent for all the anti-spam "blacklist" organizations out there. If they incorrectly put a spammer on the list, are they guilty of libel? Declan's take on all this is to side with the ISP - suggesting that there was a contractual relationship, and the guy in question should have read the contract more carefully. Of course, when all ISPs offer the same terms, you don't have much of a choice.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
