[cobalt-users] FYI: a LEGAL NOTICE for spammers

[SteelHead <bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got this from another list, and it may be of use to some
of you
politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
**********

For any politechnicals who have the energy and time to fight
spammers (I
don't -- I gave up), as an attorney I can suggest a
refinement of Michael
Fraase's tactic.

1.  Identity the spammer and notify them that they no longer
have
permission to use your bandwidth, time, email server, etc.
unless they
accept your terms and conditions:  payment of $$$.

2.  Notify them that they may accept your terms and
conditions by
continuing to send spam.

3.  Notify them that if they reject your terms and
conditions -- which few
spammers will bother doing -- all further spam will
constitute trespass to
chattel (the legal basis successfully used by big ISPs to
pursue major
spammers).

The above steps create a contractual basis (offer and
acceptance) for the
invoice, and eliminate free-speech issues.  The following is
the text of a
letter which accomplishes this.  I'm placing this text in
the public domain

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ellis Venable & Busam LLP
33 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215-3076
+1 614.221.2422 phone   221.5244 fax
www.internet-attorneys.com
*******************************

LEGAL NOTICE
To___________

______________ has sent or caused to be sent one or more
unsolicited
commercial email ("UCE" or "spam'") messages to an email
address at the
**** domain name.  Your spam was not sent in response to any
request for
information.  Spam is an annoyance and takes up our valuable
time,
bandwidth, server space, and computer hard drive space.
Effective
immediately, your further use for commercial purposes of any
e-mail address
ending with any of our domain names:  [domain name list]
constitutes your
agreement to the following terms and conditions:

1.      Each time you send UCE to our e-mail address, you
agree to pay a
usage fee of one thousand dollars ($1000.00) within 30 days
of our invoice,
payable to _______________________.  This fee is
deliberately high because
we do not want to spend our time and bandwidth dealing with
UCE unless we
are paid to do so.  You will be invoiced on a monthly basis
and agree to
pay interest at the rate of eighteen percent (18%) per annum
on any balance
which remains unpaid for more than thirty (30) days.

2.      You agree to accept service of process in [name your
state] as well
as the jurisdiction of [same state] courts for the
enforcement of this
obligation.

3.      You agree to pay the costs of collection, including
reasonable
attorney fees, even if the cost of collection exceeds the
usage fee.

This message constitutes an offer which you may accept by
sending
commercial email or causing it to be sent to any email
address at any of
the above-listed domains.  If you notify us that you do not
agree to these
conditions, then you do not have permission to send UCE to
any of the
above-listed domains; your doing so without permission will
constitute
trespass to chattel and will be pursued by legal action.

Sincerely,
- - -




Regards,
Bill Ries-Knight
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 cases of canned spam every day.
That's all we ask from each sysadmin.
(Oh, and don't forget the site the spam is for!)