Project Honey Pot Files $1B+ Lawsuit Against Spammers

Some people think the solution to spam is technical, others think it's legal, at Project Honey Pot we were founded under the theory that if you're going to make a dent in this extremely difficult problem you need the strengths of both. All week we've been telling you about new technical services. Today we're announcing something different.

On Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 10:54am in a court in the Eastern District of Virginia, Project Honey Pot filed the largest anti-spam lawsuit ever. Seeking more than $1B in statutory damages, the suit was brought on behalf of our members. It targets a huge swath of spammers. If you've harvested email addresses or sent spam in the last two years, chances are you're on our radar screen and we're coming after you.

As some of you may have seen, the press coverage of this major announcement has already begun. A copy of the complaint is available.

This is, of course, only one step in a long journey to make the Internet a better place. But it's an especially important step because it was not brought by a single ISP or regional prosecutor. This suit was brought by you: the volunteer members of Project Honey Pot representing more than 100 countries around the world. It was brought, in effect, by the Internet community. And, as a community, we are sick and tired of receiving spam day after day...it's time to do something to make it stop.

This suit would not be possible without your help. It is you who take the time to install honey pot pages, donate MX records, and share the data they generate with us. Thank you all. Please keep up the great work.

Now... let's go get 'em.

Lawsuit Mini-FAQ

Who is representing Project Honey Pot? Jon Praed, the founding partner of the Internet Law Group, is Project Honey Pot's attorney in the case. Jon has been called the "Spamhunter General" by the British Tabloids. He has represented companies like AOL and Verizon in major anti-spam lawsuits, including: Verizon Online v. Alan Ralsky, AOL v. CN Productions, and AOL v. Cybervision Entertainment. In the world of anti-spam lawyers, Jon is the best of the best. We couldn't be more fortunate than to have him on our team. Who are you targeting? We are targeting anyone who targets our members with email spam, comment spam, or harvesting. This lawsuit is unique because we believe it is the first major case in the United States to bring a claim against spammers for harvesting email addresses. While this practice has been a penalty enhancement under the CAN-SPAM Act since it was passed, in most cases the data was not available in order to prove an address was harvested. Clearly, Project Honey Pot has a unique insight into harvesting behavior. How can I help? If you haven't already, sign up to join the Project. Then install a honey pot on your web server, add a QuickLink to your web pages, donate an MX record from a domain you own, or simply tell a friend about us. We are able to bring this lawsuit because the Internet community has joined together to pool its information and resources. The more we work together, the more good we'll be able to do. What happens to any money you win in the lawsuit? We're a long way from that, but we'd like to help out the people who have helped us. Obviously a large chunk would go to paying legal fees. Intriguingly, though, since we will know what Project Honey Pot members provided the data that ends up winning the case, maybe we'll be able to send them a little bonus. :-) Where can I get a copy of the complaint? Right here.

By the way, this is only Day Four of the Five Days of Project Honey Pot. We won't make any promise that we can top today's announcement, but there are more great announcements coming tomorrow.