ICANN: We Won’t Shut Spamhaus Down

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said it will not comply with a proposed order by an Illinois judge to shut down anti-spam Web site Spamhaus.org.

“ICANN cannot comply with any order requiring it to suspend Spamhaus.org or any specific domain name because ICANN does not have either the ability or the authority to do so,” ICANN said in a statement.

Illinois Judge Charles Kocoras is considering issuing an order finding Spamhaus in contempt, and ordering ICANN and Web site registrar, Toronto-based Tucows Inc., to suspend Spamhaus.org.

ICANN’s refusal would seem to put Tucows in the court’s crosshairs. Tucows did not return calls at deadline.

The proposed order to shut down Spamhaus.org stems from the group’s ignoring an $11.7 million judgment against it issued by the same court in September on behalf of e-mail marketing firm E360 Insight.

E360 sued the UK-based Spamhaus earlier this year in Illinois state court claiming the all-volunteer group erroneously blacklisted its IP addresses, causing a significant percentage of its e-mail to be blocked from recipients.

At first, Spamhaus argued to have the case moved to federal court. However, after the venue was switched according to Spamhaus’ wishes, the group failed to show up in federal court to defend itself.

As a result of Spamhaus’ absence, Kocoras issued a default judgment of $11.7 million in E360’s favor. The judgment also included an order for Spamhaus to post a message on its site saying it erroneously blacklisted E360. Spamhaus’ executive director Steve Linford scoffed at the ruling, claiming the Illinois court has no jurisdiction over his organization.

However, some are arguing that Linford lost the opportunity to use a jurisdictional defense when his group asked to have the venue moved.

Spamhaus maintains a list of IP addresses it deems belong to spammers. An unknown number of e-mail system administrators use the list the help them decide whether or not to block incoming e-mail as spam.

Estimates vary on how much of a sender’s e-mail will get blocked as the result of a listing on Spamhaus.org. However, everyone with a vested interest in e-mail agrees getting blacklisted by Spamhaus is disastrous.

E360’s CEO David Linhardt claims 60% of his e-mail wasn’t reaching recipients as a result of a Spamhaus listing. Linhardt contends his company does not send out spam and that Spamhaus blacklisted his firm because of a business relationship that no longer exists.

Linhardt declined comment on ICANN’s statement, saying to do so would be premature since Kocoras — who is reportedly on vacation this week — has yet to issue the proposed order.