The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday rejected [opinion, PDF] an appeal from an Internet domain owner seeking to recover $10 million in damages from an online marketer under the federal CAN-SPAN (sic) Act. James Gordon had recruited his friends and relatives to collect thousands of unsolicited emails as evidence that Virtumundo, Inc., had violated the federal law limiting the activities of so-called “spammers.” The US District Court for the Western District of Washington granted summary judgment [order, PDF] to Virtumundo in May on the grounds that Gordon had not suffered “adverse effects” within the meaning of CAN-SPAM. The Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision, finding that Gordon was not an “Internet access service” (IAS) provider, and that therefore the limited right of private action in the the Act did not provide him with standing to sue.
Read more on http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/08/spam_suit_torpedoed/“>JURIST.