A company that offers bulk e-mail distribution services has been
granted a temporary restraining order in a New York court that
means its ISP can no longer stop it from sending commercial e-mail
over its system, according to a report by CNET News.
ISP PaeTec Communications alleges that its corporate customer
MonsterHut is sending spam – which is in breach of its terms and
conditions. MonsterHut maintains that it does not send spam, only
targeted, opt-in e-mail, and that for the ISP to prevent its e-mail
distribution is a breach of the contract between MonsterHut and
PaeTec.
PaeTec claims to have complaints from over 750 customers and
affidavits from dozens of these individuals saying they received
MonsterHuts e-mails but did not ask for them – i.e. the e-mails
were unsolicited. The consumers are labelling the company a
spammer.
The argument of MonsterHut is that it buys from several
companies lists of names and e-mail addresses of people who have
agreed to receive information of interest from third parties. This
raises the problem that, as yet, there is no applicable definition
of spam.
The date of the full hearing on the issues in the case is not
yet known.
