Be careful who you call a spammer...

June 2007 Anti-spam crusader Mark Mumma is in hot water.

Mr. Mumma runs the domain http://Sueaspammer.com on which he accused Cruise.com of being spammers. He subsequently filed a lawsuit against Cruise.com for sending him junk email messages that he never asked for.

If Mark Mumma's claims are accurate, the label of "spammer" would seem to be correct.

In return, Cruise.com's parent company - Omega World Travel sued him and was eventually awarded $330,000. A court in Virginia decided Mark doesn't have the right call a spade a spade.

The implications of this case are somewhat shocking. While it's unclear if Omega World Travel technically was engaging in the illegal distribution of commercial email, it would seem reasonable that their messages would meet most people's definition of spam.

I've always been under the impression that the first amendment offered some protection for critics of companies in the United States. What's next? Could someone be sued for claiming Mcdonald's food is unhealthy? Will providers of programs to stop junk e-mail be sued for correctly or incorrectly blocking a company's email?

While I'm not familiar with the legal details of this case, I can only hope there is room left for an appeal. Hopefully a saner judge will cast this ruling aside.

Back