"Domain spoofing is a serious problem for legitimate on-line
businesses," explained Anne Mitchell, President and CEO of the
ISIPP. "It causes the victim business' e-mail to be rejected by
spam filters, causes their own mail servers to be overloaded with
the rejections of the spam which was sent in their name, and can
cause them to be listed on anti-spam blocklists, all of which can
result in a loss of reputation and business."
But there is little that individuals and businesses can do to
stop spoofing. The relevant US legislation – the Controlling the
Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, (CAN-SPAM
ACT), which came into force in January - does not permit
individuals to take action into their own hands and sue spammers
directly. This role is to be left to the usual enforcement
agencies.
The solution, according to the ISIPP, is to use trade mark law.
Not all internet domains qualify for trade mark registration, but
many do, particularly if the domain belongs to an on-line business,
and the domain name is intimately identified with the on-line
business itself.
The advantage of this approach is that trade mark law allows
victims to target not only the spoofers, but the spammers and
advertisers behind the e-mails – who may be more readily
identifiable.
"CAN-SPAM doesn't allow business owners to go after the spammers
who are spoofing their domains, even though they are often the ones
most motivated to bring spoofers to justice," explained
Mitchell.
"Trade mark law gives these individual businesses that right of
action, and can provide immediate restraining orders and freezing
of assets. You can imagine the impact of all these individual
lawsuits against spammers; it's the 'death by 1,000 paper cuts'
concept in action," she added.
ISIPP has therefore launched a new suite of trade mark-related
services, to help with registration of marks, internet forensics to
help identify the culprits, and lawyer referrals for
retaliating.
