Legal action against EV1?
PhantomSteve is commenting on the Googlepray post about the umax search spammer.
Sid/Dmitriy has been spamming my guestbook, all from the same EV1.NET IP.
Contacting abuse@ev1.net, admin@ev1.net, admin2@ev1.net - all bounced back.
I have emailed support@ev1.net - with a list of *26* dates/times that the same IP was used.
I’m even considering ‘phoning them up to talk to them (I’m in the UK, so I need to get a time when I can phone during their opening hours).
However… I’m guessing from the number of references to this b*****d online that they aren’t willing to do anything…
What is the legal situation with regard to Everyone’s Internet hosting a spammer… they have to *know* about him, as they have had a lot of emails to their abuse department….
So, does anyone know how the law in the US can be used against Everyone’s Internet… we all know that if they are shut down then Sid/Dimitriy will move to somewhere else… but if they think the only way not to get shut down is to co-operate with Sid’s address (real, not the TN one), phone number, bank details, etc etc….
My guestbook (which I am re-coding/re-naming/etc) has *two* options which have to be changed (one is a tick box which is on by default but if it is ticked, the entry is automatically flagged as spam; the other is a drop down box which defaults to a “I am a spamming b******dâ€) - and both of these *are* getting changed. I dunno how a bot can do that, but it must be happening, because none of his entries have *ever* been flagged as spam.
It is (as you might gather) a moderated guestbook… so none of these entries have ever got into the guestbook.
Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Steve
Any comments?
May 31st, 2005 at 4:39 am
TEXAS PENAL CODE
CHAPTER 33. COMPUTER CRIMES
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/PE/content/htm/pe.007.00.000033.00.htm
§ 33.02. BREACH OF COMPUTER SECURITY. (a) A person
commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a computer,
computer network, or computer system without the effective consent
of the owner.
May 31st, 2005 at 7:46 am
But does that extend to the defacing of guestbooks? As far as I know, the spammer is a customer of EV1, not a hacker that’s hacked a box.
May 31st, 2005 at 12:55 pm
The wording is vague, but it is certainly aimed at hacking. Since comments, guestbooks, and wikis are open to posts by anyone its hard to say legally that a spammer doesn’t have consent of the owner to post. Its obvious to anyone they aren’t wanted, but even with a “do not spam” notice I doubt it would go anywhere in court.
Theft or denial of service laws (I have not looked at them) may be effective against the ones that post tons of spam over and over again. They are wasting resources and making the site less useable, and often in wiki’s totally replacing the original content.
More on my views of using laws against link spam: http://wiki.chongqed.org//WikiSpam#laws
June 1st, 2005 at 10:00 am
I would suggest affirmatively informing ev1.net that they and their customers are not authorized to deface your sites, and then wait for the next incident.
It should (!) be difficult to establish “effective consent” if you can document steps taken to establish no consent.