Good to hear that a spammer has been successfully sued here in the UK, via the small claims court. Ben Laurie is going to write a 'How To', and then we can all join in the fun. The sums of money involved are small, with the spammer paying only £270 in damages to Nigel Roberts who brought the case, but this means that the cost of bringing the case is kept low too.
Three years ago the EU passed an anti-spam law, the directive on privacy and telecommunications, which gave individuals the right to fight the growing tide of unwanted e-mail by allowing them to claim damages.
Mr Roberts received unwanted e-mail adverts for a contract car firm and a fax broadcasting business and decided to take action against the company.
The company filed an acknowledgement of the claim at Colchester County Court but did not defend it and a judge ruled in favour of Mr Roberts.
In an out-of-court agreement Media Logistics agreed to pay Mr Roberts damages of £270 plus his £30 filing fee.
Mr Roberts said he had limited his claim to a maximum of £300 in order to qualify to file it as a small claim.
Now, with a bit of co-ordination, a large group of people bringing small claims cases to court against the same spammers might be enough to put some of them out of business. After all, they only do it because it makes them money. If we can cost them money, we're on to something.
OK, so how do I sue the little sod who continually spoofs a post to my guestbook for lost bandwidth? He's in Russia, which probably doesn't make it easy. I deny the post based on IP address, (by giving out a 404 header) but he still keeps posting.
The problem with small claims courts is that they do not typically grant the plaintiff subpoena power. If you could have the court issue a subpoena, you could at least serve it on the domestic ISP folk and require them to release the information they have regarding identify of the sender.
huw
The problem with small claims courts is that they do not typically grant the plaintiff subpoena power. If you could have the court issue a subpoena, you could at least serve it on the domestic ISP folk and require them to release the information they have regarding identify of the sender.
huw
On another note, in the US in the state of Minnesota a blogger has been sued for US$50,000. He blogged that the owner of a business was seeking to be hired by a politician running for office, but the business owner protested that his business was known for *not* accepting this kind of work from politicians.
The blogger (who operated anonymously) allowed comments on his blog post arguing with whether the original post was true, but stood by his information and refused to take down the original post. The business owner engaged a solicitor, launched a legal action for US$50,000, and had the court issue subpoenas to the ISP to determine the identity of the blogger. Then served the blogger himself.
The case is a cause celebre and may likely go the the high court of the United States, although it has barely gotten started. The blogger was just served with his summons about three days ago. Already it is in the local media as well as spreading around the blogosphere.
Suw, if you would like to interview the parties or the attorneys they are all giving interviews on local radio and news media, and I could arrange for you to do interviews if you wish.
huw
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