By John Leyden for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit also lifted an
injunction, imposed last September, that barred Spamhaus from
listing either e360 Insight or its principal David Linhardt as a
source of spam.
Although the three-judge panel last week set aside the lower
court's default remedies as too broad and built on the flimsiest of
evidence, a sworn statement by Linhardt on supposed loss of
earnings from Spamhaus's actions alone, the original ruling
stands.
That means Spamhaus may find it difficult to argue questions of
fact, such as whether it was right to list e360 Insight on its
Block List, once the case returns to Judge Kocoras in the lower
court. It looks as if the lower court will simply come up with a
revised damages estimate. Spamhaus said it was studying the
ruling, which marks the latest chapter in the
long-running case.
e360 Insight sued Spamhaus after the anti-spam organisation
blocklisted its domains over alleged spamming. In a default ruling made by an Illinois court in
September 2006, Spamhaus was ordered to pay $11.7m in compensation
to e360 Insight, pull the organisation's listing, and post a notice
stating that it was wrong to say e360 Insight was involved in
sending junk mail. UK-based Spamhaus did not defend the case and
the ruling was made in its absence.
Initially, Spamhaus ignored the ruling. e360 Insight responded
by upping the ante and calling on the Illinois court to order
domain registrars Tucows or ICANN to suspend Spamhaus's domain,
Spamhaus.org. e360 Insight's motion was denied.
© The Register
2007
