Posted by : trraju on Apr 08, 2004 - 09:05 AM General

Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, Yahoo! Inc. and Earthlink Inc., the four largest U.S. Internet mail providers, sued hundreds of bulk e-mail senders under a new U.S. law designed to curb spam.
The six suits in California, Georgia, Virginia and Washington state are the first filed under the ``CAN-SPAM Act,'' which took effect Jan. 1, the companies said at a news conference in Washington. The e-mail providers said targets of the suits include the most notorious large-scale spammers in the U.S., accused of sending hundreds of millions of unsolicited e-mails.
The explosion of unwanted messages peddling virility pills, cheap loans and pornography has become a major expense for businesses and source of annoyance for Internet users. U.S. companies spent $785 million last year to block spam and protect their networks from viruses, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut.

``We're trying to hit the biggest, the baddest and the most notorious,'' AOL General Counsel Randall Boe said at the news conference. The suits are ``the fruit of our efforts to ID the spammers, track them down and sue them. The next step will be to put them out of business.''

Deceptive Solicitations

The targets of the lawsuits are accused of sending deceptive solicitations for a variety of products, including get-rich-quick schemes, prescription drugs, pornography and mortgage loans.

They're also accused of falsifying their return e-mail addresses, sending spam through third-party computers to disguise the origin of messages and failing to provide electronic unsubscribe options, all in violation of the CAN-SPAM law.

The law, Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, increased the penalties and set additional limits on bulk e-mails. The law allows e-mail service providers to seek damages of $25 and $100 for each piece of spam.

AOL, Earthlink and the other e-mail providers have already filed civil suits against alleged spammers. This is the first set of lawsuits by the companies since the law passed.

The four companies pooled information to investigate leads, track e-mails sent through the different networks and identify the worst offenders. They said they're also working with state attorneys general to develop criminal cases against some spammers. Officials from the four companies said they didn't know if those named in the latest round of suits are subjects of criminal investigations.

100 Million E-Mails

Yahoo sued three Canadian men in federal court in San Jose, California. The operation represents ``the greatest single source of disruption on the Yahoo network,'' with 100 million spam e- mails sent each month just through Yahoo, Yahoo General Counsel Mike Callahan said.

Many of those sued have overseas computers in an effort to avoid the U.

S. legal system, said Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson.

``Most of the people actually reside in the U.S. and just put the computers offshore,'' she said.

Most of those named in the lawsuits are identified only as ``John Does'' or with what's believed to be fictitious names, although the lawyers for the companies said they will be able to track down the people sued.

``We're only a couple of subpoenas away from standing at someone's door,'' said Earthlink General Counsel Les Seagraves.