Spamhaus to Blacklisted Marketer: Come and Get Us
The Spamhaus Project is thumbing its nose at an e-mail marketer who won a court judgment in Illinois of $11.7 million against the UK-based anti-spam blacklisting group.
The United States District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division on Sept. 13 ordered Spamhaus to pay e-mail marketing concern e360 Insight and its CEO, David Linhardt, $11.7 million in damages and just under $2,000 in litigation costs.
The decision bars Spamhaus from causing e-mail sent by e360 Insight or any of its affiliates to be blocked. The judgment also orders Spamhaus to post a one-inch-by-one-inch message on its site for six months saying that the group erroneously listed e360 Insight as a spammer.
Spamhaus’ director, Steve Linford, however, claimed in a statement that the Illinois court has no jurisdiction in the UK and if Linhardt wants to do battle in a court that matters, he’ll do so on Spamhaus’ home turf.
“Default judgments obtained in U.S. county, state or federal courts have no validity in the United Kingdom and can not be enforced under the British legal system,” the statement said. “A Plaintiff seeking to have such an order enforced must re-file the case in a British court of law and prove jurisdiction, as well as the small matter of proving the rest of the case.”
The statement also said the Illinois court’s order that Spamhaus post a message on its site saying that e360 Insight is not a spammer was, in effect, an order to post a lie.
Linford’s statement added that Spamhaus will keep e360 Insight on its blocklist and that “the Illinois ruling shows that U.S. courts can be bamboozled by spammers with ease.”
Linford did not return an e-mail for comment.
Linhardt contended in a statement Friday that U.S. courts do, indeed, have jurisdiction over Spamhaus.
“Spamhaus actively markets and sells its data feed service to companies in the U.S., is conducting business in the U.S., is illegally interrupting business in the U.S., and is using servers located in the U.S.,” he said. “Therefore, Spamhaus and Mr. Linford are indeed subject to U.S. law.”
According to e360 Insight, Spamhaus began causing havoc with its e-mail marketing efforts by placing e360’s IP addresses on its blocklist in 2003. Spamhaus maintains a so-called SBL, or Spamhaus Blocking List, of IP addresses of companies it claims are spammers. Some e-mail administrators use Spamhaus’ list to help filter incoming e-mail of spam.
According to Linhardt, as much as 65% of his company’s e-mail was not reaching its customers because of Spamhaus’ blacklisting.
In an interview with Direct, Linhardt also denied that his company sends spam. He said Spamhaus targeted his company because e360 Insight once worked with a vendor Spamhaus doesn’t like.
Spamhaus is “hell bent on destroying anyone they can associate even loosely with that organization,” he added. Linhardt said his company hasn’t worked with the vendor, which he declined to name, in months.
Spamhaus lists a company named Atriks and its principal Brian Haberstroh as the organization with which e360 Insights worked.
Linhardt said Spamhaus’ response to his company’s lawsuit “was to go completely off the rails. They’ve been scouring the Internet looking for IPs that they can tie back to us in any way.”
Linhardt added that Spamhaus even listed several networks that have never been under e360 Insight’s control. “They even listed the IP of my cable modem out of my house because I posted a response to one of their Google groups,” he said. “They have no regard for accuracy.”
Asked whether he plans to pursue Spamhaus in UK court, he said: “We just want them to comply with U.S. law and we want them to comply with the court order.”
