• by March 10, 2004

Watch out spammers. Today's news that America Online, Microsoft, EarthLink, and Yahoo! have teamed up by filing a combined six lawsuits against hundreds of alleged spammers is a landmark industry collaboration. The big four filed the lawsuits in federal courts in four states, charging defendants with distributing millions of bulk email messages to the portals' customers.

The portals claim that the alleged spammers have sent deceptive email on a variety of topics including prescription drugs and pornography, and have used open proxies, a method whereby spam is distributed through third-party computers in order to obscure its origination point.

The federal Can-Spam Act was passed in late 2003 and went into effect in early January. The portals' action today is important because they're cooperating on an initiative that threatens the entire industry and presents a big problem for consumers. The law gives only Internet Service Providers and government entities the right to file suit. Use it, or lose it--it's important that the ISPs are using their legal protections.

The question is will this banding together do any good? Will any legal protection be able to sufficiently stem the "scourge" of spam? Spam is a "terrible scourge," Martin Nisenholtz, CEO-New York Times Digital told me a few weeks ago. I remember the word because I like the word and the way he said it was, well, intense. Even so, I don't think anyone really knows what to do about this menace that's costing corporations money and time.

Last Friday, there was a tiny prelude to what may be a deluge of legal action against spammers: BobVila.com was targeted for alleged violations of the Can-Spam act.

The portals' action today appears to be along the lines of the Recording Industry Association of America's industry effort to crack down on illegal file-sharing. So far, that effort has had a mixed reception. I think it's likely that several industry groups will band together to throw their weight behind an anti-spam public relations and marketing campaign, legal defense fund, and other activities.