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FILED
UNITED
STATES
DISTRICT
COURTFORTHE
EASTERN
DISTRICT
OF
VIRGINIA,
ALEXANDRIA
DIVISION
,nft,
Ml
W
2b
A
»
53
Project
Honey
Pot,
a
dbaof
Unspam
)
Technologies,
Inc.
)
)
Plaintiff,
)
)
v.
)
No.
i
John
Does
Injuring
PHP
and
its
Members
)
£Kt*
/U>
By
Harvesting
Email
Addresses,
)
Transmitting
Spam,
)
And
Posting
Comment
Spam,
)
)
Defendants.
)
Project
Honey
Pot's
Complaint
For
Violations
Of
theFederal
CAN-SPAM
Act
and
the
Virginia
Computer
Crimes
Act
I.
Spam
is
aglobal
problemof
epidemic
proportions,
and
thetrend
lines
are
headed
in
the
wrong
direction.
By
some
estimates,
spam
now
constitutes
over
90%
of
all
email
traffic.
Using
vast
networksof
hijacked
computers,
counterfeiters,
thieves
and
hi-techsnake-oil
salesmen
now
have
instant
access
to
a
global
marketplace.
No
longer
relegated
to
dark
street
corners,
basement
labs,
and
thetrunks
ofseedy
cars,illegal
anddangerous
products
are
now
only
a
mouse
click
away
from
every
Internet
user.
Spammers
don't
evenneed
to
have
a
product
tosell
to
make
money.
Identity
thieves,extortionists
and
phishers
have
opened
Internetstorefronts,
and
unwittingvictims
fall
prey
to
them
every
day
without
everleaving
their
living
rooms.
Children
arealso
victimized
by
spam,
which
offers
them
easy
access
to
illicit
drugs,prescription
drugs
that
needno
prescription,
gambling
websites,
pornography,
fake
IDs,
spyware
disguised
as
computer
games,and
a
host
of
othertemptations.
Nation-states,
too,
are
falling
victim
to
spam
Case 1:07-cv-00419-CMH-TRJ Document 1 Filed 04/26/2007 Page 1 of 10
 
and
the
international
criminal
gangs
that
are
increasingly
behind
it.
Government
corruption,
failedlegal
systems
and
safe
haven
rules
that
generatea
substantial
portion
of
the
nation-state's
GDP
all
contribute
to
the
problem,
and
are
all
being
exploited
by
spammers.
2.
A
long
list
of
laws
prohibits
spam.Perhaps
the
most
elegant
is
the
centuries
old
common
lawof
trespassto
chattels,
whichonejudge
in
this
District
suggested
fit
the
spam
problem
like
a
hand
inglove.
Notwithstanding
that
suggestion,
a
flurry
of
state
and
federal
statutes
has
been
passedover
the
last
decade
in
an
attempt
to
stop
spam
(or
at
least
slow
its
growth)without
unduly
burdening
"ham"
(non-spammy
email).
The
culmination
of
thislegislativeactivity
was
the
Federal
CAN-SPAM
Actof2003
(15U.S.C.
§
7701
etseq.).
3.
CAN-SPAM,
it
was
hoped,
would
help
stop
spamby
clarifying
the
rules
that
bulk
emailers
were
supposed
to
follow.
The
reality
is
that
legitimateemailersgenerally
complied
with
CAN-SPAM
long
before
it
was
enacted,
or
at
least
complied
to
the
degree
that
the
identity
of
someone
who
accepted
responsibilityforthe
mailingcould
be
found
on
the
face
of
the
message
itself.
Spam
is
different.
On
its
face,
spam
never
identifies
anyone
willing
to
accept
responsibilityforthe
mailing.
The
reason
is
simple
-spam
violates
the
most
basicstandards
of
good
conduct.
Once
identified,
spammers
cannotdefend
their
"business"
practices
to
anyone,
let
alone
to
anupstream
webhost,
email
service
provider
or
judicialfact
finder.
4.If
there
were
ever
any
doubt,
today
it
is
clear
that
the
key
to
stopping
spam
is
identifying
thoseresponsible
for
it,
and
getting
that
information
into
the
hands
of
thosewilling
and
able
to
do
something
about
it.
5.
Discovering
a
spammer's
identity
is
not
simple,
but
it
is
notimpossible
either.
To
hide
successfully,
spammers
have
to
do
more
than
just
avoid
putting
their
name
in
their
messages.Everything
they
do
has
to
be
anonymous;
they
have
to
hide
while
2of
io
Case 1:07-cv-00419-CMH-TRJ Document 1 Filed 04/26/2007 Page 2 of 10
 
simultaneously
fooling
their
victims
(and
everyone
else
who
is
providing
them
with
some
service
essential
totheir
criminal
enterprise)into
thinking
they
are
running
a
legitimate
business.
6.
The
first
thing
a
spammer
needs
is
a
long
list
of
email
addresses
to
spam.
Spammers
get
your
emailaddress
in
two
primaryways.
They
steal
them
(via
harvesting)
orthey
guess
them
(via
dictionary
attacks).
The
most
common
way
spammers
steal
email
addresses
is
by
harvesting
themfrom
websites,
using
web
spiders.
This
makes
life
difficult
forthe
rest
of
usbecause
posting
email
addresses
on
a
website
is
a
convenient
way
to
facilitate
communicationsbetween
visitorsto
a
website
and
the
ownersof
thewebsite.
Owners
of
websites
who
want
to
display
email
addresses
can
obtain
some
protection
from
harvesters
by
installing
aProject
Honey
Pot
on
their
website,
and
displaying
this
Project
Honey
Pot
logo
on
their
website:1
The
logo
serves
as
a
warning
to
harvesters
that
all
of
the
email
addressesdisplayed
anywhere
on
the
website
are
protected
by
Project
Honey
Pot
and
deters
harvesters
by
putting
them
at
legalrisk
if
they
spam
any
addressesharvested
from
thewebsite.
7.
Domain
name
owners
who
want
to
protect
their
email
system
from
spam
can
obtain
some
protection
by
donating
an
MX
record
to
Project
Honey
Pot,
and
thenpubliclydisclosingthe
fact
of
their
donation
(but
they
shouldnot
disclosethe
specific
MX
recorddonated,
as
spammers
will
simply
avoid
this
MX
record
and
continue
to
send
spam
to
MX
The
website
for
the
logocan
be
found
at
http://www.proiecthoneypot.ors/how
to
avoid
spamhots
S.php.
3
of
10
Case 1:07-cv-00419-CMH-TRJ Document 1 Filed 04/26/2007 Page 3 of 10
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