BobVila.com in Nation's First Anti-Spam Case

Through his commercial Web site, home improvement guru Bob Vila recently became the nation's first target of the new federal anti-spam law, according to attorney John L. Fallat.

Fallat filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Foster City-based Internet Service Provider Hypertouch, Inc., alleging Sacramento-based Blue-Stream Media and Boston-based BVWebTies LLC, owner of BobVila.com, violated the Federal CAN-SPAM Act (Control- ling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) by sending Hypertouch and its customers unwanted and unsolicited electronic mail advertisements for Bob Vila's “Home Again Newsletter.”

“The CAN-SPAM Act provides only the most minimal protections to the public,” says Hypertouch President and Founder Joe Wagner. “But BobVila.com and BlueStream Media failed to observe even those.” The suit alleges that the defendants sent spam e-mail advertisements with fraudulent headers and no legally required physical address. They also sent e-mail to randomly generated and harvested addresses, even to addresses that had been submitted to the “opted-out” links of other spam.

“Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) advise their customers to never reply to a spam in an attempt to 'opt-out' because that will only confirm for the spammer that an email address is 'live,'” says Wagner. “BobVila.com and BlueStream Media's actions graphically show how harmful the CAN-SPAM Act is by requiring recipients to reply to the spam they receive.”

“While ultimately we feel that the CAN-SPAM is an open license to spam with very little protection for the public, we will zealously use what few protections are available to punish unrepentant spammers,” says Fallat. “We want to send a strong message to other would-be spammers, and the companies that hire them.”

“BobVila.com even refused to assure Hypertouch that they would never use BlueStream Media in the future,” Wagner adds. “I cannot understand why any legitimate business would run the tremendous legal and public relations risk in harassing millions of people with spam.”

Anyone who has information about the marketing and/or business practices of BobVila.com or BlueStream Media is invited to contact attorney John Fallat at 415-457-3773 or e-mail him at [email protected]. Additional information is available at http://%20legal.hypertouch.com/.

For more on the CAN-SPAM Act, see “The CAN-SPAM Act: Regulates, Doesn't Eliminate, Spam” in our February 2004 issue.

Wire service reports contributed to this article.

Through his commercial Web site, home improvement guru Bob Vila recently became the nation's first target of the new federal anti-spam law, according to attorney John L. Fallat.

Fallat filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Foster City-based Internet Service Provider Hypertouch, Inc., alleging Sacramento-based Blue-Stream Media and Boston-based BVWebTies LLC, owner of BobVila.com, violated the Federal CAN-SPAM Act (Control- ling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) by sending Hypertouch and its customers unwanted and unsolicited electronic mail advertisements for Bob Vila's “Home Again Newsletter.”

“The CAN-SPAM Act provides only the most minimal protections to the public,” says Hypertouch President and Founder Joe Wagner. “But BobVila.com and BlueStream Media failed to observe even those.” The suit alleges that the defendants sent spam e-mail advertisements with fraudulent headers and no legally required physical address. They also sent e-mail to randomly generated and harvested addresses, even to addresses that had been submitted to the “opted-out” links of other spam.

“Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) advise their customers to never reply to a spam in an attempt to 'opt-out' because that will only confirm for the spammer that an email address is 'live,'” says Wagner. “BobVila.com and BlueStream Media's actions graphically show how harmful the CAN-SPAM Act is by requiring recipients to reply to the spam they receive.”

“While ultimately we feel that the CAN-SPAM is an open license to spam with very little protection for the public, we will zealously use what few protections are available to punish unrepentant spammers,” says Fallat. “We want to send a strong message to other would-be spammers, and the companies that hire them.”

“BobVila.com even refused to assure Hypertouch that they would never use BlueStream Media in the future,” Wagner adds. “I cannot understand why any legitimate business would run the tremendous legal and public relations risk in harassing millions of people with spam.”

Anyone who has information about the marketing and/or business practices of BobVila.com or BlueStream Media is invited to contact attorney John Fallat at 415-457-3773 or e-mail him at [email protected]. Additional information is available at http://%20legal.hypertouch.com/.

For more on the CAN-SPAM Act, see “The CAN-SPAM Act: Regulates, Doesn't Eliminate, Spam” in our February 2004 issue.

Wire service reports contributed to this article.