By John Leyden for The Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The threat comes after the anti-spam organisation refused to
comply with a September
ruling by a US court requiring it 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 Project declined to defend itself, arguing
that the US courts had no jurisdiction in the case. The voluntary
organisation ignored the
Illinois court on principle amid concern that fielding a defence
might open it up to a barrage of nuisance lawsuits by spammers
aggrieved that its activities are frustrating their ability to
deliver junk mail.
The same Illinois court is now considering going ahead with a
draft order (PDF)
asking ICANN to pull domain records for Spamhaus.org, a move that
could unleash a tide of junk mail.
Spamhaus's "blacklist" of IP addresses used by spammers helps
ISPs and large organisations to weed out junk mail traffic. Loss of
the domain would impair the effectiveness of the service, at the
very least. Though this still leaves the possibility that Spamhaus
could move onto a separate domain not under US control, such an
action might lead to US judges ruling Spamhaus in criminal
contempt.
"If the domain got suspended, it would be an enormous hit for
the net," Steve Linford, Spamhaus's chief exec
told AP. "It would create an enormous amount of damage on the
internet."
Spam experts reckon that web-savvy Spamhaus users would still be
able to get hold of its list and that end-users would be unlikely
to see their inboxes clogged up with junk mail even if the proposed
order was filed and ICANN ruled against Spamhaus. Spamhaus is
urging calm, arguing that ICANN is unlikely to suspend the
spamhaus.org domain.
"We believe a government agency would have to step in before it
happened. One US government agency has begun working on a response.
Before an event such as this could occur, we believe ICANN would
fight the order, as ICANN understands both the technical effect as
well as the political one (hint: ITU and US control of the
internet)," it said in a statement on
the latest developments in the case.
Bart Loethen, a lawyer for e360, told AP that his client had
every right to go after Spamhaus's domain. "They are thumbing their
nose at an order of the court," Loethen said. "What else can we
do?"
The issue has sparked a lively debate on the net with some
deriding the court's decision while others, such as law professor
Matthew Prince, comments
that Spamhaus has been ill-advised in its handling of the case.
© The Register
2006
