April 08, 2003
Spammer loses in hearing
Yesterday, Anne Arundel court denied the plaintff's demand that a website 'outing' his address and contact info was not harrassment.
Detail here: Ruling Backs Anti-Spam Activist.
Quote:"George tried to send me a message, and wanted to make an example of me," he wrote. "Instead I had a message for him: Every time you try to mess with me, I will post it on the 'Net, and more people will learn about you. I don't encourage harassment against you, and I don't need to. The facts speak quite loudly enough. Your best option is to crawl back under a rock and suck it up, or move to some state other than the one I live in."
This is excellent news. This is community pressure being applied locally. This sort of thing needs to happen more. When spammers abuse us it behooves the people near them to start voicing their distaste for them. Community standards only exist when we behave like a community. I'm not saying we should go out and apply mob justice. I'm saying we, as community members, should make it clear to our fellow citizens that we know about their behavior, that we don't like and want it stopped.
I'm sure there's all sorts of risks associated with expressing opinions of what is or isn't behavior that needs changing. But it's the paralysis that exists from doing NOTHING that's gotten us into this mess. It's high time we started acting in ways that help stop these abuses. Start outing these folks but, please, don't stoop to their level by behaving unlawfully.
