Microsoft Corp. has filed seven lawsuits against defendants who allegedly sent e-mail violating the Can-Spam law’s “brown paper wrapper” provisions.
The provisions require sexually oriented solicitations to include the label “Sexually Explicit” in both the subject line and the initially viewable area of the e-mail.
“Sexually explicit materials and publications for sale in stores are required by law to be covered from view with a brown paper wrapper, and it’s important that consumers are protected online in the same way,” said Nancy Anderson, vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft in a statement.
The seven lawsuits were filed Wednesday in Washington State Superior Court in King County against “John Doe” defendants who have yet to be identified. The lawsuits allege violations of the federal Can-Spam law and Washington state’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act, including using compromised computers around the world to route spam e-mail messages, using misleading subject lines, and failing to include an unsubscribe option and physical address. Collectively, defendants in these cases allegedly sent hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages to Internet users.
In addition to yesterday’s filings, Microsoft filed another John Doe lawsuit on Nov. 12, against a spammer soliciting, among other things, Korean-language adult-oriented Web sites. Microsoft has supported over 115 legal actions worldwide against spammers, including filing 86 lawsuits in the United States.
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