Spam blocked by US court

Washington State's anti-spam law has been successfully used by a free-speech group, Peacefire.org.

The King County District Court in Washington State granted Peacefire webmaster Bennett Haselton $1,000 in damages against spammers Red Moss Media, Paulann Allison and Richard Schueler.

"I'm glad to live in a state where we have an effective anti-spam law, and I wish other states would pass similar laws or the federal government would pass one," said Haselton.

The small-claims suit alleged that the three companies had sent unsolicited commercial messages to Haselton.

The messages were said to contain "deceptive information" like a forged return email address or misleading subject line.

Washington's anti-spam law bans email that is deceptive, and although it was enacted four years ago, it has rarely been used.

California's anti-spam law demands that advertising emails should contain the letters 'ADV' in the subject line.

Peacefire and Haselton have been mounting a campaign to encourage IT managers to use the law to take on the spammers. So far they have been victorious, winning $1,000 in similar small-claims court rulings against four spammers.

In a statement Haselton said the latest ruling showed that there were non-technical methods to fight the spammers.