Once Again (With Feeling): Complying With CANSPAM Doesn't Outlaw Filters

Email

from the how-hard-is-this-to-get? dept

Over a year ago, we wrote about a dating site that was spamming students under the belief that, as long as the spam messages complied with CAN SPAM, they could not be filtered. That’s a bizarre, and somewhat obviously wrong, interpretation of the CAN SPAM law, and a court agreed — quickly tossing out the lawsuit. However, the spammer kept it up and tried again. Once again, the argument was that CAN SPAM made it illegal to filter emails — though, that’s not actually in the CAN SPAM law anywhere. The Appeals Court, however, actually read the law and understood this, and has upheld the lower court ruling. So, once again, for those who didn’t get it the first few times: just because you comply with CAN SPAM, it doesn’t mean it’s illegal to filter your spam. The article, by the way, also notes how this particular company started spamming in the first place. It filed a freedom of information act request to get the email addresses of all the students at the University of Texas. Seems like a pretty questionable use of a FOIA request.