How legal is webspam today?
We’ve had quite a few webspammers come here and say that webspamming is legal, so quit calling us spammers. They’re afraid of the stigma of being called spammers. And because they say it’s legal, they feel we as spam hunters should leave them alone.
So, let’s examine exactly how legal webspamming is.
1) There are no laws against webspamming per se. IE, there are no laws where webspamming has been defined as illegal.
2) There are plenty of laws against mail spamming. In some countries those laws define e-mail spam to the exclusion of other types of electronic advertizing. Which means those laws narrowly do not cover webspam. Correct me if I’m wrong on this.
3) Some countries have laws that cover e-mail spam, but does not define that law as only covering e-mail spam. The law covers advertizing, sometimes electronic advertizing. Those laws probably sometimes do cover webspam. It depends on the language of that law, and the lawyers would probably haggle over some finer points. It’s a question of case law, and so far there is no case law.
4) Spamming is by definition unwanted commercial bulk messages. Any webspam that involves putting messages or profiles on other people’s property (ie websites), falls under that definition. And by engaging in that activity, a webspammer is a spammer. Whether or not it’s illegal per se isn’t really relevant. Mail spamming isn’t illegal in every single country across the globe. Those who send mail spam are still spammers. In other words, it’s quite acceptable to call a webspammer - a spammer. It’s not libel.
5) While webspamming, there are other issues that crop up, that could be illegal by themselves, or at the very least, cause for civil lawsuits. In no particular order:
*Denial of service attacks. Many servers have been brought down by spambots hammering sites with spam comments or trackbacks. Websites have been disabled or thrown out by hosting companies for that reason.
*Trashing websites. Guestbooks are regularly trashed by spam, and so are other types of sites withe built in interactivity. Some spambots may potentially mess the site up in other ways too. There’s a potential for a civil suit there.
*Some topics commonly spammed are illegal in some places. Like bestiality in the US, for instance.
*Hacking into other people’s servers in order to run proxies, spambots and placing spammy pages and scripts
*Using proxies that were never meant to be proxies
*Using compromised windows computers - zombies/botnets
Please help me add to this list.
September 28th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Please note: I am not a lawyer, and the folloing comments must not be contrued as legal advice.
In Britain, “The Computer Misuse Act (1990)” section 2
covers” Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences” and setion 3 covers “Unauthorised modification of computer material”.
See http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900018_en_1.htm for details.
The practical effectiveness however may be limited since for a reliable case, the perpetrator would need to be identified and to be in Britain and, if I understand correctly, so would the computers.
But it does suggest that despite the impracticalty of bringing a prosecution, British law certainly would regard web-spamming as illegal.
Now, wouldn’t it be helpful if this kind of law could be brought into EU legislation?
September 28th, 2006 at 8:03 am
I think this would come down to interpretation and if someone has a comment form or a signup page then I think it would be wrong to say this is an “unauthorised modification”.
September 28th, 2006 at 9:12 am
The UK Computer Misuse Act can be used however to combat Spammers quite well, because the law is actually pretty vague when it comes to describing offences. As a result, you can tailor to help your cause.
Basically from the moment you inform the would be spammer that they are unauthorised to access said computing resource any subsequent attempt they access the resource they are breaking the law. Pretty simple, you just collect evidence and pass to the police.
I’ve used this a couple of times as a means to stop some of those aggressive search engine bots from spidering my site to the end they have had to put in place specific exclusions to stop their spiders. On a couple of occassions I’ve reported offenders to the UK High Tech Crime Unit, one of the perpetrators actually still has an outstanding warrant for his arrest if he ever visits the UK.
September 28th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Well, they will argue, I wonder how they would like it to be spammed?
September 28th, 2006 at 10:04 am
I think they’d just get on with life. You wouldn’t go chasing after someone and try have them arrested if they were to cut you up whilst driving along.
What gives you the righ to pry into other peoples lives with the intent of ‘putting them in jail’ . Do you actually realise how nasty that is? Trying to put someone in jail for something so trivial…
You’re trying to interfere and wreck the lives of those who (the majority of) aren’t even breaking any laws. Are you telling me you have never driven above the speed limit, jumped a traffic light, driven the wrong way down a one way street(even if it was just a quick shortcut)? Never drunk alcohol or smoked before you were at the legal age? Never smoked an illegal substance(yes, including marijuana or the hundreds of other little things which people are happy to do and think its fine.
The bottom line is no one is perfect but it’s so easy for you all to scrutinised and judge other people since there is a clear track to follow online, I bet if we scrutinised each spamhunters life we would find the odd law they break here and there quite often.
If you want to make a difference then join the police force or some other authorised group, otherwise just grow up and move on.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:15 am
I wrote about spamming and the law in this story - Moral Maze - last year. While that was about referrer spamming, perhaps the legal comments I obtained then might equally apply to comment spam and forum profile spam. While you invite people to comment on your blog or join your forum by offering the means to do so, I don’t reckon there’s an implied invitation to spam. Would spamming then be unauthorised access and/or modification in relation to the CMA? It’s something to think about.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:15 am
[…] How legal is webspam today? […]
September 28th, 2006 at 10:51 am
I have a statement on my website’s TERMS OF USE policy page that prohibits any unauthorized automated activity on my site so technically, if anyone in my jurisdiction severely violates my T&Cs it’s a matter of contract law, plain and simple.
Unfortunately, the serious abuse happens outside of my legal jurisdiction but the filtering and such on my site discards %99.9999 of the junk automatically so at the moment it’s no harm, no foul, but they just keep coming regardless.
Here’s a thought. use the existing spam laws…
Whether people send PRIVATE EMAIL or PUBLIC EMAIL, it’s still email so let’s work on the definition of EMAIL which can also be WEB-BASED EMAIL, like Yahoo mail, or a SUBSCRIBER based forum or blog that can, and does in come case, function like a mailist with an online reader.
Now, just change your blog from using “comments” to a “Public EMAIL discussion” with a checkbox to allow people to “SUBSCRIBE” to the webposts. This is actually the case on some sites I already use and they use CAPTCHA’s to stop the automated spam.
Now if you follow this thought, with email capabilities added to the “comments” section of the blog it’s now an actual physical mailist, therefore making any webspam actualy create REALl SPAM, since people could SUBSCRIBE to the comments. So when spammers submit to these blog posts they would really be using the blog as a spam-relay mechanism to send actual EMAIL spam to a mailist and be violating the existing laws.
Gotta love technology.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Oh look who commented, the puppy journalist himself.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Most US/International email laws do not prohibit the sending of emails, they only prohibit using ISP’s mail servers to send the mail out.
Secondly, they primarily only regulate what the message must contain, in which in most cases and laws is only a physical mailing address, and and valid opt-out link.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Well it all depends on what you consider spam - and that is often a subjective thing. So many people who actually work to pull the advertiser and the consumer together fall foul of being labelled a spammer…
Link spam is in its automated form quite anti-social but the creation of content to help monetize those terms too uncommon to warrant the resources of a complete white hat site can be justified in my opinion as long as the creator is focussed on devlivering some value to the visitor.
September 28th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I notice incedbill has now written some crap on his blog about me.
I honestly want to know what gives you the write to try and interfere with my business.
You don’t stalk customers in shops and try catch them shoplifting.
You don’t stalk people in cars and try catch them speeding.
You don’t try and catch people graffiting.
These are all crimes and you don’t get involved… so why on earth do you try cause hassle for people who aren’t breaking any laws. I seriously want to know why you think it’s okay to act like this? Because its online…!?
The bottom line is because you have nothing better to do. We all know the spamhuntress doesn’t have much to do during the day other than sneak a peak at the odd mail server and she figures that since she’s in front of the pc she might as well do something. You all think you’re doing the world a service, you’re not… seriously.
Go after some real criminals.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Hey esrun,
You’re the dumbshit who outed himself. You have your fucking nickname all over the web forums. And why do you even bother spamming forums on behalf of your blog anyway? If anything you ACCIDENTALLY created linkbait.
Fucking amateur.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for the comments. All I can say is that you have me mistaken for someone else. I cannot help if someone else spams my website. Why you’re hiding who you are has me a little confused, another person who wishses they were me
September 28th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Oh and be sure to check out my new video!
September 28th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Perhaps you think trying to argue with and dissuade SpamHuntress in her efforts will impress your peers and your motives are just for self glorification, which is completely lame.
Obviously you don’t understand why your pro-spam comments in an anti-spam blog are getting you unwanted attention, DUH!
A smart spammer would keep quiet.
Regarding real crime, I’ve been involved in stopping more than a few so don’t talk about what you don’t know about as you just embarass yourself.
September 28th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Esrun - (web)spaming = sending unsolicted content using electronic media is illegal in my country. And the (web)spamers are still spamming me regardles of that.
If you are unsure why Spamhuntress is after you (you = spammers, plural) the answer is simple: bacause you have spoiled her pages/thrashed her mailbox. There would be no problem with her if you avoid spamming her. Simple, isn’t it? You have created the spam. The spam created spamhunters.
If you don’t want to be chased by spamhunters - don’t spam them.
If you don’t want to break the law - don’t spam places/countries where you would break the law.
If you don’t want to get fined because of crossing on red light - don’t cross the strreet on red light.
If you get spanked - don’t complain. It was your intention to break the law/bahave not-social and you were dreaming that nobody would notice.
September 28th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Okaaay…. That’s kind of like saying, “playing football is legal, so quit calling us football players.” Talk about a non-sequitur defense!
September 29th, 2006 at 2:12 am
Incredibill, I think you have me misunderstood. I really couldn’t care less about what spamhunters do, I’m not even a spammer. Sure I write about spam topics but I don’t carry out spam myself.
I couldn’t care less about what you guys do as long as you follow the law.
I think you all take this far too personally.
Lemat, I think you have completely missed the boat… filling what inbox with mail, spamming which spamhuntress page?
You’re all making comments about myself or others being spammers with no proof. Just because someone has “spammed” my website does NOT mean it was myself and just because I talk about spam does not mean i’m a spammer.
By your reckoning someone who had an interest in weapons and blogged about them must be a criminal carrying weapons.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Also an additional note to Incredibill. Okay fine, you may have been involved in stopping real crimes but I bet you don’t drive around different stores each night and camp out trying to catch shoplifters. So why spend so much time trying to stop advertisers online.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:36 am
If you “couldn’t care less” you wouldn’t be here spouting your garbage rhetoric that nobody wants to hear?
Nobody cared about you until YOU stuck your nose in where you didn’t belong and now YOU are now whining that peoiple are actually paying attention to your lame self.
Besides, what “PROOF” do I need that you haven’t already posted?
You proclaim to be a “blackhat SEO web spammer” on your own ABOUT page, have SPAMMING scripts on your site, and easily traceable examples that you ran your own scripts, or do you have selective amnesia all of a sudden?
If I only quote your own web site, and I’m then incorrent because you posted lies, then you’re the liar, not me as I can only operate within the confines of the known facts as posted by yourself, proclaiming to be a “blackhat SEO web spammer”.
Advertisers online? I don’t take have to look for any spamming morons as they hit MY site 24/7, so why would I take THAT personally when I’ve never had to look beyond my own server to find all the fodder I need to go on the offensive to protect myself against these so-called “advertisers”.
Why don’t you do evolution and your family tree a favor, which appears to need some serious pruning, and go take a romantic long walk off a short pier.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:38 am
Final thought…
Esrun, or do you prefer Nurse, you’re only caught up in your own web of nonsense so just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone, what a concept.
September 29th, 2006 at 11:34 am
What a concept to follow, beings you have his information posted on your website.
September 30th, 2006 at 4:16 am
I used to get a lot of comment spam, on various sites I’d built.
It was a pain having to recode everything just because a minority of idiots decided they would abuse something for monetary gain.
I don’t know if a bot proof form exists, but fwiw, I changed all of the forms on one of my sites from vanilla html form objects, to javascripted document.write constructs and (touch wood) haven’t seen one piece of comment spam since.