francesca da rimini on Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:32:22 +0200 (CEST) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
<nettime> Internet Alert: Australian Spammer sues activist |
Article published on Adelaide IndyMedia June 18, and forwarded to nettime with the kind permission of the author... Internet Alert: Australian Spammer sues activist Author: Michael Harris Contact:12 Berkeley Street, Heathridge, WA, 6027 Australia phone: 0894030798 Email: mgharris@iinet.net.au In what is being billed as a international legal first, a company engaged in the sending of Unsolicited Bulk Email, or Spam is suing an anti-spam activist for his alleged involvement in having them placed in an international blacklist. The company in question, Perth-based The Which Company T/as T3 Direct headed by sole director Wayne Robert Mansfield has been engaged in the practises of sending junk email to the inbox of internet users addresses which it has got hold of through various questionable technologies for over 2 years. However, recently Joseph “Joey” McNicol said enough was enough – and decided to publish information about the company on his website. Little did anyone know that his frustration was noticed by SPEWS.org, an international blacklist database based in the US which maintains lists of companies which are engaged in sending spam. The databases are then used by various internet providers from around the world to filter out junk mail from their users inboxes. This independent organisation chose to place T3 in their blacklist database as there were a number of verified spam attacks from this company which had been found. As you might have gathered, after T3 was listed on SPEWS.org – junk email they had been sending was bouncing back at them. Central to the entire claim put before Western Australia’s District Court a few weeks back is that Joey had directly influenced or caused them [T3] to be placed in SPEWS.org’s lists. However this claim is refuted by SPEWS, who clearly state on their website “SPEWS does not take submissions or nominations. Entries in SPEWS are made by the people who run SPEWS for their own blocking and filtering needs.” Internet users everywhere have become very interested in this case since it was broken in late May, with a massive movement starting up to help Joey defend the lawsuit. Many websites including online forums, mailing lists, and even a donation service have been provided so people can help out in whatever way they can. However, a major event which is being tied to the campaign to fight the lawsuit is pending protest action. Several Perth-based internet users associated with the campaign are putting a protest to be held at an upcoming seminar being run by one of Mr. Mansfield associated companies' Business Seminars Australia on the 25th of July. The protest action is designed to inform people about the ongoing plight of junk email on the internet and the unsavoury business practises employed by Mr. Mansfield and his web of companies. While everyone is hoping that this case will go in favour of Joey, there could be some serious repercussions if it does not. Various Technology-focused Legal experts fear that if this case goes in T3’s favour, that the spamming floodgates will be opened on internet users and that there will be nothing anyone can do to legally stop them. Time will tell, but hopefully the world's internet community will get in behind Joey to ensure that spammers are given the message that we don’t want our email filled with their junk. For further information please see: http://winchester.ii.net/spamsuit/ http://t3-v-mcnicol.ilaw.com.au/ OR http://www.joeyfightsspam.org/ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net