OptIn Real Big has obtained an injunction against IronPort, the company that owns SpamCop.  For those who don’t know, SpamCop is a service that automatically decodes the headers on spam emails and sends notifications to the spammer’s ISP about the spam.  Since sending spam is a violation of the TOS or AUP for most ISPs, this usually gets the spammer kicked off the service.

Scott Richter, the self-professed “Spam King” and president of e-mail marketing company OptIn, sued IronPort and SpamCop on April 29 for allegedly interfering with his business and causing his Internet service providers to block his company’s e-mail. He also charged SpamCop with not disclosing the identity of people who complain about its e-mail, thereby aiding potential violations of the Can-Spam Act, which requires the removal of people from future mailings if they so choose.

“This whole system is done in the dark—we don’t know who’s complaining, what the substance of the complaint is, and there’s no opportunity to correct the complaint” to comply with provisions in the Can-Spam Act that require a company to remove people from a mailing list, said Steven Richter, an attorney for OptIn.

“We’re asking for the right to handle complaints.”

First, there should be enough information in a SpamCop ISP report to identify the offender and the recipient.  In fact, there is more information than that there, because I have one spammer who added my SpamCop address to their “opt-in” list (as I have noted before, I use a unique address for all of my online dealings, one which indicates the company that I’m doing business with, and since I own several domains I know these addresses have not been used before).

Frankly, this points out one of the weaknesses (of which there are many) of the CAN SPAM act.  It requires that the receiver of spam contact the sender to be removed.  Since spammers have proven themselves to be unscrupulous bastards, no one with any sense will contact the spammer to ask to be removed, since this usually just confirms that the address is active and results in more spam. 

I know that in my own dealings with Opt In Real Big that their claims of having obtained permission to send me spam are lies.  They were using an address that I had given to a company that I knew I had told not to send me any promotional emails.  Further, they were advertising things from another company entirely. 

If they think this is going to make life any easier for them, they’re sadly mistaken, though.  If I get any spam from these bastards while the injunction is in progress I’ll just report them to their ISP myself.  I have the knowledge to hunt them down on my own, it’s just that SpamCop provided a handy automated interface to do what would otherwise would take me several steps to do myself.

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