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Timberland and GSI cough up $7 million to settle text spam lawsuit

by Darren Murph posted Sep 23rd 2008 @ 9:15AM

Not that we haven't seen victories over SMS spammers before, but this one is sure catching a lot of attention due to the names attached. GSI Commerce and Timberland have reportedly agreed to "establish a fund of up to $7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against them for allegedly sending unsolicited text messages to wireless telephone users in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act." The settlement has already received preliminary approval from a judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, and while the aforementioned firms vehemently deny any wrongdoing, they concede that taking this to court would be "burdensome, protracted and expensive." More expensive than $7 million? Is that guilt we smell, or what?

[Via mocoNews]

UK says Bluetooth spam not prohibited by privacy laws

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 9th 2007 @ 8:34AM

Spammers in the UK just got a little pick-me-up from the Information Commissioner's Office, which recently evaluated its rules and decided that Bluetooth was not covered by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which prohibits advertisers and marketers from sending unsolicited messages on a "public electronic communications network." Since Bluetooth doesn't operate over a public network like SMS or email, the ICO can't apply the privacy regulations as they're now written to Bluetooth messaging -- advantage, spammers. The ruling isn't official yet, but we'd be surprised if the regulations weren't re-written to include Bluetooth and other short-range wireless connectivity standard pretty quickly.

[Via Tech.co.uk]

Verizon Wireless wins suit against SMS spammer

by Brian White posted Feb 27th 2007 @ 7:59PM

In the fight against text message spam, Verizon Wireless just struck a decent blow to a pretty hardcore SMS spammer. The CDMA carrier won a judgment against Specialized Programming and Marketing LLC (what a cheeky name, eh!) and the company's owner, Charles Henderson. "Specialized Marketing" is nor prohibited from sending unsolicited text messages to Verizon Wireless subscribers in any form after the company apparently sent 100,000 SMS spam messages offering a vacation package. The suit requires the company to also pay Verizon in excess of over $200,000 as damages. We say give that money back to the subscribers who had to put up with the extra-lame spam text messages. Whaddaya say, Verizon?