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January 9, 2006 10:00 AM PST
Supreme Court won't hear spam appeal
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In 2003, the University of Texas blocked thousands of unsolicited
e-mails sent to its users by
In February 2003, White Buffalo legally obtained a list of all of the university's "nonconfidential, nonexempt" e-mail addresses by filing a Freedom of Information Act request, according to the text of a federal appeals court opinion
Soon thereafter, the University of Texas received several complaints by students receiving "unsolicited e-mail blasts" from the company, according to court filings. Citing its Board of Regents' general policy against solicitation, the university ordered the spamming to stop. When White Buffalo didn't listen, the university had its IP addresses blocked.
White Buffalo responded with a lawsuit, alleging that the federal
A federal trial court in Western Texas sided with the university, and a three-judge panel at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
The appeals court also concluded that the Can-Spam Act wasn't intended to prevent Internet service providers, including those run by public universities, from filtering spam--though the court did suggest that the University of Texas could have taken narrower steps to do so. The case appeared to be the first to address that aspect of Can-Spam.
Neither the university nor White Buffalo Ventures could be immediately reached for comment Monday.
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
See more CNET content tagged:
university,
CAN-SPAM Act,
spam,
IP address,
e-mail
- A taste of their own medicine
- Someone please post the "nonconfidential, nonexempt" e-mail addresses for the boneheads who run White Buffalo Ventures. I want to send them unsolicited e-mail blasts and claim protection by the Can-Spam Act.
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- Amazing!
- It's amazing this issue went as far as it did in the judicial system. What a colossal waste of resources, time and energy! In a sense, it's unfortunate the court did not accept the case. No doubt it has better things to do. One can only hope the resulting lawyer's bills will drive White Buffalo Ventures into bankruptcy.
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