Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/04/20/uk_antispam_minnow_takes/

UK anti-spam minnow takes on US big fish

Redoubles effort to pursue all spammers through the court

By Tim Richardson

Posted in On-Prem, 20th April 1999 11:08 GMT

UK Internet company BiblioTech has rejected an out-of-court settlement from a US junk emailer because he has refused to give any assurance that he won't do it again in the future. Sam Khuri -- who runs the Net-based company Benchmark Print Supply -- had agreed to settle the dispute and pay damages after he allegedly committed offences against BiblioTech and its free Postmaster email service. Although Khuri said he would not use Postmaster to send spam in the future, he refused to give any assurance that he would not send junk email using other service providers. It is this intransigence that has prompted BiblioTech to continue to pursue Khuri through the US courts. "Our goal is not just a spam-free Postmaster email system," said Chris Verdin of BiblioTech. "Instead, we seek a spam-free Internet." "As long as spam-related settlements protect only the complaining ISP, rather than all ISPs, there will always be another target for the spammer," he said. The lawsuit -- which is pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia -- arose after Khuri flooded Postmaster's mail servers with a torrent of unsolicited email. Fulham-based BiblioTech has a history of challenging spammers and has pledged that if any of its customers falls victim to spam, it will track-down the offending individual or company and get them to stop -- even if it means going to court. It has even enlisted the help of Sanford Wallace -- the one-time "King of Spam" who has since reformed his ways -- to help track down and identify persistent offenders. ®