Spam king wins court restraining order on anti-spam company

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 12 May 2004 at 17:12

The self-confessed spam king Scott Richter has won a temporary restraining order against anti-spam outfit SpamCop to bar it from including it in its blacklists of known spammers used by other companies to block unwanted mail.

Richter sued SpamCop - owned by IronPort systems - on 29 April on behalf of his email marketing company OptInRealBig.com. It won an order barring SpamCop from sending on complaints it receives about OptIn to other ISPs and not revealing email addresses of those who send in such complaints.

Richter said that without such information, his company would be unable to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act and address those complaints and that in effect SpamCop is increasing the likelihood of violating the Act in its practices.

IronPort has filed an appeal seeking to annull the order before the 20 May hearing date.

OptInRealBig.com is also one of the defendants of the six suits filed against spammers by major US ISPs under the Can-Spam Act at the end of April.