Plaintiffs "Peacefire & Bennett Haselton" win judgments against spammers under Washington State's anti-spam law, RCW 19.190. Bennett Haselton, the webmaster for Peacefire won a six month battle against spammers. The new Washington state law allows residents to pursue lawsuits against unsolicited bulk email. In a phone conversation with Bennett, he explained that the companies, Bulk ISP, Onsite Training, PowerEmail Systems and Alan Batts lost their cases on Monday.

How did Bennett find the spammers?

o    Bulk ISP didn't have real email, so Bennett got an order form from the company to attain their true identity.

o    Onsite Training weren't hiding and did not cover their trail.

o    Alan Batts sent a chain letter, but put his real name first on the list. In a lot of cases the sender of the spam is easy to identify.

One spammer sent the court a letter claiming they were out of Washington's jurisdiction. However, Bennett explained that the law states the company is doing business in Washington. Advertising or marketing, is considered doing business.

None of the defendants showed up for court.

Currently, Bennett is involved in other suits with Bulk ISP that have been delayed. Allegedly, Bulk ISP claims they "don't spam Mr. Haselton." According to Bennett Haselton, the issues with Bulk ISP are far from over. Bulk ISP's lists are not "opt-in" lists although they may claim differently. The order forms for Bulk apparently claim mailings are sent to unsolicited emails.

The Law

There doesn't seem to be many people taking advantage of the law. "it's not hard", Bennett says. Apparently not, and if the circumstances are right and the laws are behind the people, maybe more people will use this type of law and someday, spammers might be a thing of the past.

Bennett is currently involved in another lawsuit for the spammers he cannot find. That lawsuit will take place in superior court, where the companies will be subpoenaed for more company information.

In this newsbytes.com article, Bennett is quoted as saying:

"In the long run I hope that enough Washington State residents will become aware of their rights under the anti-spam law -- so much so that it becomes economically impossible for U.S. companies to spam, with all the Washington residents that file lawsuits against them."

Background info on Peacefire

From the Peacefire site:

Peacefire.org was created in August 1996 to represent the interests of people under 18 in the debate over freedom of speech on the Internet.

The Web site and mailing lists are maintained by Bennett Haselton, who is now a freelance programmer in Seattle.

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of sXXXch, or the right of the people peaceably to XXXemble, and to peXXXion the government for a redress of grievances." -- Marc Rotenberg