Re: In re: Spam and Gate Crashing

Digital Litter?

Unfortunately, there is no clear way to attack this problem. However, if the post is clearly without substantive merit, and just intended to "gum up" the list, you could argue some sort of tort such as interference with business relations, nuisance or something along those lines. This would be very fact-intensive and cutting-edge. As you well know, the ability to frame a case and file an intelligent brief may be sufficient leverage to stop the Spamming.

Copyright seems inapplicable (even if the message violates Copyright Law, the list is probably not the "violatee"). It's not "trespass" because
(a) there's no property involved, and (b) the list is open to the public.
(The "Spammer" did not have to sneak onto the list, s/he could have just
subscribed like you or me and Spammed away.) The "rules" of the list probably do not form a contract among list users, so breach of contract is not very likely. There may be some criminal nuisance claim, but how would you go about enforcing it? What police force/prosecutor is likely to pursue this sort of case?

This is likely to be an interesting line of cases over time. What courts have jurisdiction?

A practical solution (maybe) is to filter and delete Spams. The Spammer has no right to get his/her stuff posted, so it can be deleted. Unfortunately, the technology may not be up to the task.

I'd love to know what others feel about this.

Greg Cirillo
Wash. D.C.
GCirillo[_at_]aol.com Received on Thu Oct 19 1995 - 13:18:41 GMT