--- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 16:31:03 -0500 To: declanat_private, politechat_private From: "Robert L. Ellis" <rellis@internet-attorneys.com> Subject: Re: FC: Spammer-mocking critic replies to Politech posts Cc: mfraaseat_private In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011121012243.0228a690at_private> 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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