Spam Trumps All?

Apparently, despite federal and local legislation, E-mail spammers continue to prosper, even in court! A guy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Mark Mumma decided to fight back. According to a Time Magazine article, he might be sorry he did. Thinking particular emails he was receiving violated Oklahoma and Federal Laws in terms of their origin and paths through the Internet, he threatened to sue the offenders after a cease and desist was agreed to but the emails continued. He initiated litigation and posted pictures of the offending company's executives on his own website calling them "Cruise.com spammers". And they sued him in return! He could be on the hook for as much as $3.8 million. Unbelievably, the court threw out Mr. Mumma's suit finding the spammers not in violation but allowed the executive's suit to continue for libel or slander. As Time points out, apparently the right to free speech wins over the right to privacy.

I don't know but one should not have to click link after link in email after email to get the offending company to stop unwanted spam-type email. Moral of the story: get yourself a free email address (yahoo, hotmail, whatever) for making online purchases or other activities online that require entering an email address. Use your ISP address for friends and family - that is, until they start spamming you with unfunny joke after unfunny joke!

Citation: Holding, Reynolds. "A Spammer's Revenge" Time Magazine 15 Jan. 2007; 62.