A federal judge in Illinois has denied anti-spam blacklisting group The Spamhaus Project’s motions to dismiss an $11.7 million default judgment against it.
The case now heads to appeals court.
Spamhaus’ new lawyer Matthew Neumeier went before judge Charles Kocoras earlier today to get the default judgment thrown out on the grounds that the Illinois court has no jurisdiction over the UK-based group.
Neumeier, an attorney with law firm Jennifer and Block LLP in Chicago, did not immediately return a call for comment following today’s ruling.
Kocoras denied three motions: one to dismiss the default judgment against Spamhaus; another to stay enforcement of the judgment pending appeal; and a third to quash enforcement of a citation to discover Spamhaus’ assets.
“Now Spamhaus is going to have to come back to court with a list of all its assets,” said David Linhardt, CEO of e360 Insight, the company suing Spamhaus in Illinois. Some believe Spamhaus tried to have discovery of its assets nullified to avoid having its volunteers’ identities divulged.
“All along I’ve been under the assumption that they don’t want to expose who they really are,” Linhardt said. “They operate in secret.”
On Sept. 13 Kocoras ordered Spamhaus to pay e360 Insight $11.7 million in damages and just under $2,000 in litigation costs.
The ruling barred Spamhaus from causing e-mail sent by e360 Insight or any of its affiliates to be blocked. It also directed Spamhaus to post a 1-inch-by-1-inch message on its site for six months saying that the group erroneously listed e360 Insight as a spammer.
Spamhaus maintains a blacklist many e-mail inbox providers use to screen incoming e-mail for spam. In its suit, e360 claimed Spamhaus falsely labeled it a spammer.
Kocoras issued a default ruling against Spamhaus because after the group argued to have the venue moved to federal court from state court, Spamhaus failed to show up to defend itself.
Spamhaus executive director Steve Linford thumbed his nose at the ruling, saying he would only abide by a court decision handed down in the United Kingdom and that Kocoras’ ruling simply showed how easy it is for some U.S. judges to get “bamboozled” by spammers.
E360’s Linhardt countered by trying to get the judge to sign an order requiring the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and/or Web site registrar Tucows to shut Spamhaus’ domain down, but Kocoras refused to sign it, saying it was too broad.
The two litigants offered very different interpretations of what went on in the Illinois court today.
Linhardt said the judge obviously was exasperated with Spamhaus.
“He basically struck down all of their motions flat out,” said Linhardt. “The judge was visibly upset at the ridiculousness of the argument and said, ‘You tell [Spamhaus] I’m expecting them to comply with this order.’ He was pissed.”
Someone posting under Linford’s name on an anti-spam discussion group, however, said the judge simply indicated he was done with the case because it had been moved to the appeals court. Linford was confident the ruling would be overturned on appeal.
“So onward to the appeals court the case goes,” wrote Linford.
There will be an appeals hearing in January, according to Linhardt.
