On 6th October, in a case brought on behalf of California e-mail
service Friendly Email, the US District Court for the Northern
District of Georgia permanently forbid Benchmark Print Supply and
its owner Sam Khuri from sending any unsolicited commercial e-mail
to any internet users and from engaging in a host of other improper
e-mail related activities, including spoofing (falsifying the
originating address of their e-mails) and cloaking (otherwise
attempting to disguise the e-mails' true source).
The injunction also requires Khuri and Benchmark to abide by the
applicable Terms Of Service in relation to any e-mail accounts they
obtain from ISPs or other e-mail services, most of which expressly
forbid any use of such accounts in relation to the sending of
spam.
”This is a great victory. I am elated that I was able to deliver
on my promise to free the internet from the grips of Khuri and his
egregious e-mails,” said Paul F. “Pete” Wellborn III, the lawyer
who represented Friendly Email in the case. Mr Wellborn is now
referring to himself as “The Spammer Hammer.”
Until the entry in this case of a temporary restraining order by
the court last month, Benchmark and Khuri were among the most
prolific spammers in the US, periodically bombarding Internet users
with hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mails advertising their
printer supplies and toner cartridges.
Key to Friendly Email's victory in the case was an order against
Khuri and Benchmark obtained earlier this year by Mr Wellborn in a
separate case brought on behalf of BiblioTech, Ltd., a London-based
e-mail service also “victimised” by Khuri. The order required Khuri
and Benchmark to honour all “opt-out” requests from the recipients
of their e-mails who wished to be removed from Khuri's mailing
lists. The Consent Order also forbade Khuri and Benchmark from
spoofing or cloaking and established a lowered burden of proof
against them in any subsequent action alleging a breach of the
Consent Order. Finally, the order deemed all internet users to be
“express third-party beneficiaries,” thus allowing Friendly Email
to sue under the Consent Order even though it had not been a party
to the earlier case.
