News

[PSUs]

Wednesday 18th June 2003

Microsoft attacks spam with 15 suits 4:38PM, Wednesday 18th June 2003

Microsoft has launched a trans-Atlantic flurry of lawsuits against spammers, with two being based in the UK.

Representatives from the company would not be drawn on naming the UK defendants, but the suits have been brought under the UK Misuse of Computers Act, alleging the unlawful harvesting of email account names and other illegal spamming practices.

CEO of Microsoft EMEA Jean-Philippe Courtois said: 'Spam represents a tremendous issue for our customers,' Courtois said. 'By maintaining our commitment to addressing this problem over the coming years, we aim to protect consumers, preserve the integrity of the Internet and foster a healthy online environment.'

Also appearing alongside Courtois was Phil Jones, assistant commissioner to the Information Commissioner's Office, which oversees the Data Protection Act. He struck a more cautious note on Microsoft's actions today. 'Though legislation has a vital part to play, not least in reinforcing acceptable norms, the volumes involved, together with the jurisdictional

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problems, mean that this scourge will not be stopped by formal enforcement alone. A coordinated multipronged approach, involving the industry, government and regulators working together across national boundaries, is called for,' he said.

Indeed a global approach is what is required. Many non-US Internet users suffer spam from the US, much of it originating from Boca Raton - a town in Florida where sending spam is legal.

But how committed is Microsoft? In spite bringing its US suits under Washington's 'strong antispam law', over at the west coast, Microsoft has been busy in a Californian courtroom speaking against a proposal to require Internet users to opt in to receiving unsolicited email.

Last month, MSN here in the UK said that it was stopping 2.4bn spam messages a day from its servers and that the figure amounted to some 80 per cent of email traffic handled. Clearly, the problem got out of hand some time ago.

Even so, the major players seem to have their sights set on eliminating spam, with the likes of Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! formaing an alliance to make a stand against it.

AOL also launched five lawsuits against spammers back in April, claiming the spam emails generated over eight million individual complaints from its members, via AOL 8.0's Report Spam button.