Calling Spammers Names Costs Spam Victim $2.5M

Jury Finds Spam Victim Liable for $2.5 M for Calling Senders of LUCE 'Spammers'

In a case of justice gone horribly wrong, WebGuy.net's Mark W. Mumma, ISP, spam victim and anti-spam activist, has been dealt the ultimate "low blow" by a Federal Court. The small, Oklahoma City based ISP has been ordered by a U.S. Federal Jury to pay $2.5 Million in damages to the very company that admitted sending him unsolicited e-mail in the first place.

Oklahoma City, OK (PRWEB) June 27, 2007 -- In a mind numbing decision two months ago today in case no. 05-CV-122 in the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled that Mark W. Mumma's statement that Plaintiffs, Cruise.com, Omega World Travel and Gloria Bohan "are spammers" is "untrue" in spite of the fact that Cruise.com witnesses confirmed, under oath, that they never ask a recipient's permission prior to sending them e-mail offers. The reason given by Cruise.com CEO Anthony Hamawy regarding why they don't verify an e-mail recipient's desire to receive their offers was, 'No, we have not, primarily because our competitors don't.'

"I have been battling spam for more than a decade and was very pleased when laws were passed defining stiff penalties for those who send spam," Mumma stated. "I tried to recover relief through the courts for the wasted time and loss of productivity I've suffered because of spam, but after incurring $70,000 in legal fees and seeing a $2.5 Million jury award leveled against me, I think I've had about all the 'relief' I can stand."

A little more than three years ago, Mumma set up a web site to 'out' spammers called, SUEaSpammer.com. He warned senders of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) that he would expose anyone who sends him any such unwanted e-mail messages. He warned spammers that he would record their telephone calls and post them on the Internet. He also warned that he would post photos of the people ultimately responsible for spam messages, as well as the spam e-mails themselves. He wasn't kidding. Yet it is Mumma that has had to pay the ultimate price for spam when Cruise.com's parent company, Omega World Travel, sued him for defamation for 'calling them spammers'.

"I have tried opting out, but no matter how legitimate a company seems, virtually every time I opt out of an e-mailing that I didn't opt into to begin with, I just end up with more spam, not less," says Mumma. "Maybe if there was a significant cost involved in sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, companies would stop."

Throughout the case, Cruise.com attorneys accused Mumma of signing up for the offers in spite of Cruise.com's own evidence to the contrary. At least one of Cruise.com's attorneys has vowed to foreclose on Mumma's home in order to satisfy their judgment against him. Another has vowed to sue him when he releases, SLAPP SUIT, the documentary Mumma is self-producing about this lawsuit. Mumma's plight was featured in TIME Magazine, this past January.

"During the trial, Omega's lead attorney stressed that this case was about 'Cruise.com's good name.' Ironically, the most important time for Cruise.com to utilize their 'good name' would have been to identify their e-mail server as a 'cruise.com server' when connecting to recipient mail servers," Mumma explained. "Instead, Cruise.com failed to use its real name, announcing itself as 'FL-Broadcast.net', a domain they have never owned. A complete fabrication."

In spite of the fact that Cruise.com witnesses testified during discovery that they did not own the domain name FL-Broadcast.net, as well as confirming that Mumma had not requested the e-mails in question, Judge Brinkema advised the jury that the case was 'essentially about damages' and that she had already 'determined as a matter of law that calling an entity a spammer is a defamatory statement.' This finding has been followed by Judge Brinkema referring to the e-mails Cruise sent as 'spam' herself during a May 11 hearing.

"I originally claimed that Cruise.com had broken the law because I genuinely believed that 'HELO forgery' was illegal under the provisions of The CAN-SPAM Act," Mumma contends. "Now, as long as some contact info is present in the e-mail itself, I know header forgery is 'excusable'."

"I expected justice to be done," says Mumma. "I never imagined I would be victimized by the courts, saddled with tens of thousands in attorney fees, a $2.5 Million judgment and the possible loss of my home. What makes it all the more frustrating is the Plaintiffs corroborated every 'true, yet somehow still defamatory' thing I have ever said about them. Cruise admitted that an unknown Comcast Cable Internet subscriber in Illinois signed up my e-mail address. They further admitted that they have no system in place to prevent anyone from signing up someone else's e-mail address, so, basically 'Legal Unsolicited Commercial E-mail' or 'LUCE' happens because someone signs you up, and irresponsible e-mail marketers don't bother to check and see if the sign-up is legitimate or not."

As a result of a hearing June 1st, Omega World Travel now faces the choice of accepting a lowered damage award of $330,000.00 or having a new trial. Omega has only until the end of the week to file their decision with the court.

"Once a judgment is entered, I will have thirty days to file an appeal; however, without a little help from other weary and tired e-mail users, there is no way I can afford it. This lawsuit has wiped me out financially. If possible, I want to try to get a grass roots effort organized to take the fight back to spammers everywhere. If other Internet users want me to keep fighting the good fight, I'll do it. Appealing the decision in my case is important to get the war on spam back on track. Proactively going after spam and LUCE offenders alike needs to continue. I refuse to just lie down and die."

"I came very close to 'giving up' several times," Mumma confesses. "However, I was inspired by the movies Facing the Giants and Maxed Out to make my own documentary about this ridiculous lawsuit."

"Cruise.com appears to owe their jury victory to their successful re-definition of the term 'unsolicited e-mail'. In Cruise.com's version, if someone signs you up, even if it is someone you do not know and have not authorized to subscribe you to e-mail lists of any kind, the courts will back them, because the e-mails were solicited by 'someone'," Mumma added. "I thought that was the very definition of 'Unsolicited e-mail'; when someone besides the recipient adds the recipient to an e-mail list."

Cruise.com is a registered trademark of Omega World Travel, Inc.

MummaGraphics, Inc., founded in 1993, is a provider of Internet web hosting and web site design services and, until recently, has been directing its energies to curbing unwanted junk e-mail, a/k/a spam. MummaGraphics began suing spammers in August 2004, but may soon retire as a spam fighter.

Original PRWeb Release || Hi-Res Broadcast Quality Video


Press Contact: Mark W. Mumma
Company Name: MummaGraphics, Inc.
Phone: 310-691-5800
Website: http://www.2bucksamonth.org/

Get .INFO Domains For $3

EstDomains: INFO Promo Offer Still Running

EstDomains Inc., a US-based domain registrar, announces the extension of its promo offer regarding INFO domains. 1-year registration of an INFO domain will remain priced at $3 until Dec 31st 2007.

(PRWEB) August 15, 2007 -- They say great things don't last long. Hundreds of webmasters used the promo offer from EstDomains Inc. http://www.estdomains.com to register domains in popular zones at truly unprecedented prices. After getting plenty of feedback, EstDomains Inc. extends its promo offer for INFO domains until Dec 31st 2007.

We are barely halfway through 2007, and the remaining months will be the months of saving on domain registrations when using the great EstDomain Inc. deal. No need to hurry to get a new INFO domain at an unbeatable price. 1-year registration of an INFO domain is still priced at $3.

EstDomains Inc. is registered in USA and is accredited by ICANN, an international organization governing the usage and registration of all top level domains in the world. You can check out the list of accredited registrars here: http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html. This guarantees all the domain-related procedures, including registration, management and transfer to other registrars always comply with relevant legal norms and common business practices. In other words, EstDomains Inc. makes professional, trouble-free domain registration even more affordable.

Currently customers of EstDomains Inc. can register a domain name in more than 10 international zones http://estdomains.com/prices.html. Registering a domain is fast and simple due to the feature-packed and convenient web interface. There are a number of payment options to choose from. Learn more about services and special offers from EstDomains Inc. on the company's official site: http://www.estdomains.com.

Press Contact: Konstantin Poltev
Company Name: Estdomains INC
Phone: 302-722-4217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com

E-mail Provider Offers 10GB Online E-mail Storage

Premium E-mail Provider Runbox Increases Online E-mail Storage to 10 GB

Premium email provider Runbox Ltc. increases online storage space for its online email service Runbox.com to 10 Gigabyte (GB) per email account plus 1 Gigabyte (GB) for files.

(PRWEB) September 30, 2005 -- Runbox Ltd. is a global premium email service provider delivering premium email world wide since 1999.

Says Runbox founder and CEO Hans Lysglimt: "During the last year it seems the world woke up to Runbox vision that email will be read, written and stored online, accessible everywhere and on any device. Runbox pioneered the high online storage space premium email segment in 2000 when we launched the first 100 MB storage accounts, unheard of at the time. We then increased to 1 GB accounts in 2004 (admittedly sparked by the competition). We now see that the trend of increased email storage space for premium email will continue indefinitely. We will soon be sending each other full length feature movies (700 MB+) as attachments."

Runbox is therefore announcing that we will up the storage quota for all email accounts to 10 GB and files storage to 1 GB effective immediately. With this we want to signal once and for all that your Runbox account has virtually unlimited storage capacity for the foreseeable future (we are talking many many years) and that you may safely trust to store all your email in your Runbox account. With 10 GB email storage there should be no reason to worry about getting a full mailbox for anyone.

Runbox vision is that email users will have their entire email archive online and be able to search trough this for the rest of their lives. "The value of having all your email online, current email and your email archive going back years will only go up. As you have your email archive available you will learn to depend upon it." says Runbox CEO Hans Lysglimt.

"In the future we will all have our personal files, data and email stored online. We will use this data with a number of applications to increase our productivity and efficiency. Your Runbox email archive is already today available for you by any email protocol you like. You can import, export and manipulate your email in any way you like using Runbox. This is the future of personal computing." says Hans Lysglimt.

Runbox Ltd. is a private Norwegian company pioneering premium email since 1999. Runbox is an email hosting provider to both individuals and businesses world wide. Runbox is closely affiliated with Linpro AS, Norway's leading Linux development company.

Runbox is a premium email provider competing with Gmail, YahooMail, Hotmail, AOL mail and other leading global email providers.

http://www.runbox.com

Press Contact: Hans Lysglimt
Company Name:
Phone: 004792410510
Website: http://www.runbox.com

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against United States Postal Service

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service
A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against the federal government agency for violating terms of the Privacy Act and distributing contact information of its employees to marketing partners. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all employees and claims the United States Postal Service (USPS) allowed private businesses, as part of its Strategic Business Initiatives plan, to access and utilize its 'employee master file' that contains private information including home addresses of all career and non-career, full and part-time employees.

The complaint states the business initiatives plan allows private corporations to submit bids for co-branding agreements. Under these agreements the USPS logo is branded on various marketing materials and sent to the private residences of USPS employees.


United States Postal Service Legal Help
If you have suffered damages in this information breach case, please click the link below to send your USPS complaint to a lawyer who will evaluate your claim at no cost or obligation.

Click here for legal help and a free evaluation of your possible case

Free Credit Reports

Your Access to Free Credit Reports

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. The FCRA promotes the accuracy and privacy of information in the files of the nation's consumer reporting companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, enforces the FCRA with respect to consumer reporting companies.

A credit report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home.

Here are the details about your rights under the FCRA and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, which established the free annual credit report program.

Q: How do I order my free report?

A: The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report.

To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form is on the back of this brochure; or you can print it from ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.
A Warning About "Imposter" Websites

Only one website is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law - annualcreditreport.com. Other websites that claim to offer "free credit reports," "free credit scores," or "free credit monitoring" are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program. In some cases, the "free" product comes with strings attached. For example, some sites sign you up for a supposedly "free" service that converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period. If you don't cancel during the trial period, you may be unwittingly agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card.

Some "imposter" sites use terms like "free report" in their names; others have URLs that purposely misspell annualcreditreport.com in the hope that you will mistype the name of the official site. Some of these "imposter" sites direct you to other sites that try to sell you something or collect your personal information.

annualcreditreport.com and the nationwide consumer reporting companies will not send you an email asking for your personal information. If you get an email, see a pop-up ad, or get a phone call from someone claiming to be from annualcreditreport.com or any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, do not reply or click on any link in the message. It's probably a scam. Forward any such email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

Q: What information do I need to provide to get my free report?

A: You need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. If you have moved in the last two years, you may have to provide your previous address. To maintain the security of your file, each nationwide consumer reporting company may ask you for some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment. Each company may ask you for different information because the information each has in your file may come from different sources.

Q: Why do I want a copy of my credit report?

A: Your credit report has information that affects whether you can get a loan - and how much you will have to pay to borrow money. You want a copy of your credit report to:

    * make sure the information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date before you apply for a loan for a major purchase like a house or car, buy insurance, or apply for a job.
    * help guard against identity theft. That's when someone uses your personal information - like your name, your Social Security number, or your credit card number - to commit fraud. Identity thieves may use your information to open a new credit card account in your name. Then, when they don't pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report. Inaccurate information like that could affect your ability to get credit, insurance, or even a job.

Q: How long does it take to get my report after I order it?

A: If you request your report online at annualcreditreport.com, you should be able to access it immediately. If you order your report by calling toll-free 1-877-322-8228, your report will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days. If you order your report by mail using the Annual Credit Report Request Form, your request will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days of receipt.

Whether you order your report online, by phone, or by mail, it may take longer to receive your report if the nationwide consumer reporting company needs more information to verify your identity.

There also may be times when the nationwide consumer reporting companies receive a high volume of requests for credit reports. If that happens, you may be asked to re-submit your request. Or, you may be told that your report will be mailed to you sometime after 15 days from your request. If either of these events occurs, the nationwide consumer reporting companies will let you know.

Q: Are there any other situations where I might be eligible for a free report?

A: Under federal law, you're entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you such as denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment and you ask for your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company. You're also entitled to one free report a year if you're unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; if you're on welfare; or if your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft. Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $9.50 for another copy of your report within a 12-month period.

To buy a copy of your report, contact:

    * Equifax: 800-685-1111; www.equifax.com
    * Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742); www.experian.com
    * Trans Union: 800-916-8800; www.transunion.com

Under state law, consumers in Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont already have free access to their credit reports.

Q: Should I order a report from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies?

A: It's up to you. Because nationwide consumer reporting companies get their information from different sources, the information in your report from one company may not reflect all, or the same, information in your reports from the other two companies. That's not to say that the information in any of your reports is necessarily inaccurate; it just may be different.

Q: Should I order my reports from all three of the nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time?

A: You may order one, two, or all three reports at the same time, or you may stagger your requests. It's your choice. Some financial advisors say staggering your requests during a 12-month period may be a good way to keep an eye on the accuracy and completeness of the information in your reports.

Q: What if I find errors - either inaccuracies or incomplete information - in my credit report?

A: Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company and the information provider (that is, the person, company, or organization that provides information about you to a consumer reporting company) are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your report. To take full advantage of your rights under this law, contact the consumer reporting company and the information provider.

   1. Tell the consumer reporting company, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate.
      Consumer reporting companies must investigate the items in question - usually within 30 days - unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all the relevant data you provide about the inaccuracy to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the consumer reporting company, it must investigate, review the relevant information, and report the results back to the consumer reporting company. If the information provider finds the disputed information is inaccurate, it must notify all three nationwide consumer reporting companies so they can correct the information in your file.

      When the investigation is complete, the consumer reporting company must give you the written results and a free copy of your report if the dispute results in a change. (This free report does not count as your annual free report under the FACT Act.) If an item is changed or deleted, the consumer reporting company cannot put the disputed information back in your file unless the information provider verifies that it is accurate and complete. The consumer reporting company also must send you written notice that includes the name, address, and phone number of the information provider.

   2. Tell the creditor or other information provider in writing that you dispute an item. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider reports the item to a consumer reporting company, it must include a notice of your dispute. And if you are correct - that is, if the information is found to be inaccurate - the information provider may not report it again.

Q: What can I do if the consumer reporting company or information provider won't correct the information I dispute?

A: If an investigation doesn't resolve your dispute with the consumer reporting company, you can ask that a statement of the dispute be included in your file and in future reports. You also can ask the consumer reporting company to provide your statement to anyone who received a copy of your report in the recent past. You can expect to pay a fee for this service.
If you tell the information provider that you dispute an item, a notice of your dispute must be included any time the information provider reports the item to a consumer reporting company.

Q: How long can a consumer reporting company report negative information?

A: A consumer reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. There is no time limit on reporting information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you've applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance. Information about a lawsuit or an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer.
Q: Can anyone else can get a copy of my credit report?

A: The FCRA specifies who can access your credit report. Creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use the information in your report to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home are among those that have a legal right to access your report.

Q: Can my employer get my credit report?

A: Your employer can get a copy of your credit report only if you agree. A consumer reporting company may not provide information about you to your employer, or to a prospective employer, without your written consent.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Search-Engine Optimized Blog Services

Webmarketing123 Offers New Search-Engine Optimized Blog Services -- Leader in Search Engine Optimization Now Provides the Most Effective, Comprehensive SEO Services Worldwide at the Lowest Feasible Cost

Webmarketing123, leader in the fast-growing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) market, has introduced a new search-engine optimized blog service to help clients' web logs stand out in today's increasingly competitive online business environment.

Oakland, CA (PRWEB) August 2, 2007 -- Webmarketing123, leader in the fast-growing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) market, has introduced a new search-engine optimized blog service to help clients' web logs stand out in today's increasingly competitive online business environment.

"There are a wide range of companies offering SEO, each employing strategies that may differ significantly, hence producing varying results," said Paul Taylor, CEO of Webmarketing123 an SEO firm in California. "Understanding these different strategies is the most important factor in choosing an SEO company. This new optimized blog offering, and more new services to come, will enable us to provide the most effective and comprehensive SEO service package in the industry."

Search-optimized blogs
Technorati.com tracks nearly 27 million blogs and about 75,000 new blogs are launched each day. How can a client's blog stand out in this blizzard of competition? The solution is blog search engine optimization.

An optimized blog gives a search engine everything it needs:
• Fresh content -- Webmarketing123 updates clients' blogs frequently with up-to-date information.
• Each client's blog will have an optimized site structure.
• Webmarketing123 sets up blogs with a clear navigation path that search-engine spiders can easily follow.
• Each page will link back to the other main pages (via internal interlinking).
• Blog posts will be rich in keyword content.

An optimized blog enhances the client's business:
• puts a face on the company.
• helps prospects and clients interact with the company and form a personal relationship with it.
• Prospects and customers can get recent news about the client.
• An optimized blog contains up-to-date information about clients' products and services.
• improves search engine rankings and that boosts sales.

About Webmarketing123
With offices in Oakland and Southern California, Webmarketing123 provides Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) services to a growing client base throughout the San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego regions ... and the world.

Through SEO, Webmarketing123 increases clients' visibility in a process that involves minor alterations to their web sites, selecting keywords that will generate targeted traffic, continually researching search-engine algorithms and policies, and -- most important -- thoroughly understanding the customer's needs.

Through its very successful PPC program, Webmarketing123 delivers the highest volume of customers at the lowest cost. PPC management is the practice of identifying and categorizing high-value search terms, defining a value proposition specific to these search terms and managing bidding strategies to assure that the lowest price per click is being paid to meet business objectives.

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Press Contact: Paul Taylor
Company Name: Webmarketing123
Phone: +18006191570
Website: http://webmarketing123.com/