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July 19, 2005

"Citizen Joe" Jared prevails in court

A California Superior Court has ruled that the operator of a spam blacklist is not responsible for damage he caused to a company placed on the blacklist.

In a ruling entered July 13, Judge Geoffrey T. Glass ruled that Joe Jared, operator of the now-defunct OsiruSoft Open Relay Spam Stopper, was protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act when he blacklisted New York-based investigative services firm Pallorium in July 2003.

Pallorium's director Steven Rambam sued Jared in October 2003. Rambam claimed that Jared erroneously blacklisted his company and interfered with Pallorium's business. (This article has more background on the case.)

"Any good faith effort to restrict access to spam would be protected," under the CDA, ruled Judge Glass in his judgment in favor of Jared.

Judge Glass also declared that "Pallorium is a collateral casualty in the war on spam" and is not entitled to recover costs from Jared.

On the Nanae newsgroup, Jared said he may attempt to recover his court costs from Pallorium. (Jared has published information about the case at his site.)

Posted by brian at July 19, 2005 10:52 PM