Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[B <beeline AT mindspring.com>]

Joe Komenda wrote:

> That's $10 per mail *in addition* to legal expenses. We have at least a few
> lawyers in InterNetworkers - (or married to members ;-)), so we could prolly 
> put
> the hurt on them if everyone in InterNetWorkers sued as a group.
>
> hmm... That might pay for a few meetings... hmm...
>
> Joe K

Or, you domain owners could try this Politech poster's suggestion:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FC: Make money fast! -- By trapping spammers with trespass charges
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 23:32:38 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan AT well.com>
Reply-To: declan AT well.com
To: politech AT politechbot.com
CC: rellis AT internet-attorneys.com


---

Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 16:31:03 -0500
To: declan AT well.com, politech AT politechbot.com
From: "Robert L. Ellis" <rellis AT internet-attorneys.com>
Subject: Re: FC: Spammer-mocking critic replies to Politech posts
Cc: mfraase AT farces.com
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011121012243.0228a690 AT mail.well.com>

For any politechnicals who have the energy and time to fight spammers (I
don't -- I gave up), as an attorney I can suggest a refinement of Michael
Fraase's tactic.

1.  Identity the spammer and notify them that they no longer have
permission to use your bandwidth, time, email server, etc. unless they
accept your terms and conditions:  payment of $$$.

2.  Notify them that they may accept your terms and conditions by
continuing to send spam.

3.  Notify them that if they reject your terms and conditions -- which few
spammers will bother doing -- all further spam will constitute trespass to
chattel (the legal basis successfully used by big ISPs to pursue major
spammers).

The above steps create a contractual basis (offer and acceptance) for the
invoice, and eliminate free-speech issues.  The following is the text of a
letter which accomplishes this.  I'm placing this text in the public domain.
  - - - - - - -
LEGAL NOTICE
To___________

______________ has sent or caused to be sent one or more unsolicited
commercial email ("UCE" or "spam'") messages to an email address at the
**** domain name.  Your spam was not sent in response to any request for
information.  Spam is an annoyance and takes up our valuable time,
bandwidth, server space, and computer hard drive space.  Effective
immediately, your further use for commercial purposes of any e-mail address
ending with any of our domain names:  [domain name list]  constitutes your
agreement to the following terms and conditions:

1.      Each time you send UCE to our e-mail address, you agree to pay a
usage fee of one thousand dollars ($1000.00) within 30 days of our invoice,
payable to _______________________.  This fee is deliberately high because
we do not want to spend our time and bandwidth dealing with UCE unless we
are paid to do so.  You will be invoiced on a monthly basis and agree to
pay interest at the rate of eighteen percent (18%) per annum on any balance
which remains unpaid for more than thirty (30) days.

2.      You agree to accept service of process in [name your state] as well
as the jurisdiction of [same state] courts for the enforcement of this
obligation.

3.      You agree to pay the costs of collection, including reasonable
attorney fees, even if the cost of collection exceeds the usage fee.

This message constitutes an offer which you may accept by sending
commercial email or causing it to be sent to any email address at any of
the above-listed domains.  If you notify us that you do not agree to these
conditions, then you do not have permission to send UCE to any of the
above-listed domains; your doing so without permission will constitute
trespass to chattel and will be pursued by legal action.

Sincerely,
- - -



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ellis Venable & Busam LLP
33 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215-3076
+1 614.221.2422 phone   221.5244 fax
www.internet-attorneys.com




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