Last year, Spamhaus found itself on the wrong end of a $11.7 million default judgment awarded to online marketing firm e360insight after it decided not to fight the case due to its belief that US courts had no jurisdiction over the group because of its location in the UK. Yesterday, an appeals court overturned the award, sending the case back down to a lower court.Based in the UK, the not-for-profit Spamhaus maintains a blacklist of known spammers and spam operations that is used by ISPs to help filter the spam from legitimate e-mail. Its antispam crusade has drawn the ire of some spammers, including e360insight owner David Linhardt, who sued Spamhaus in federal court.
Linhardt argued that Spamhaus is a "fanatical, vigilante organization" that operates with "blatant disregard for US law." After originally filing a response to the lawsuit, Spamhaus decided that, given its location in the UK, it was beyond the reach of the US court system. After Judge Charles Kocoras issued the default judgment—which required the antispam group to remove e360insight from its database, post a message saying that Linhardt's company is not a spamming operation, and pay $11.7 million in damages—Spamhaus told Linhardt not to hold his breath waiting for a payment.
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