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Home censorship

Spamigation and How to Fight It

by Dana Blankenhorn
August 20, 2006
in censorship, copyright, Internet, law, political philosophy, politics
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Templeton_1
EFF head Brad Templeton gets full credit for this new word.

Spamigation is mass litigation conducted with an aim to intimidate. in that way it’s related to SLAPP suits, which companies aim at their critics, except they’re aimed at stopping an economic activity, the copying of copyrighted material. And they’re issued in bulk, hence the name.

The best examples are the RIAA suits against filesharing and DirecTv lawsuits against smart cards used to "steal" channels. (I happen to believe filesharing is fair use, but the smart cards are theft.)

No real investigation is done. You may be perfectly innocent. The suit is made out for an amount that is high enough to hurt ($3,500 hurts) but low enough so that it’s not worth calling a lawyer.

The suits and threats go out in bulk. There is often nasty publicity when it turns out that some grandma is being sued for what her grandkids did, or bought. The numbers look large, but they are (as yet) not large enough to cause a political ripple. The press usually reports the stories in a way that makes grandma look like an innocent victim of her nefarious grandkids, who have now (supposedly) learned their lesson and will never do that again.

But what they are doing may arguably be legal. The aim of spamigation is to prevent that argument, creating a ton of case law that supports a questionable legal position.

So how do we fight it?

Politics is the way to fight this. The growing open source movement
and Internet values offer a political philosophy that can be deployed
to change laws and beat these guys. It’s just that groups like EFF are
so small, and open source politics is so new, that no one has yet
connected the dots.

They should. Copyright and patent reform are going to become key issues
as those who practice open source politics reach power. The abuses of
our time need to be collected (they are being collected), documented
(they are being documented), then used in the political battles to come.

But those battles will only begin after the current crisis is over. The
good news is that the copyright industries are wedded almost entirely
to the current political paradigm, to the Nixon Myth of Conflict. Don’t
let them weasel their way into the new coalition, and we’ll have them. (And since the Democrats among them are Lieberman Democrats, they won’t be able to.)

Tags: copyright industriescopyright litigationcopyright reformcopyright suitsDirecTvDMCARIAAspamigration
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Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn began his career as a financial journalist in 1978, began covering technology in 1982, and the Internet in 1985. He started one of the first Internet daily newsletters, the Interactive Age Daily, in 1994. He recently retired from InvestorPlace and lives in Atlanta, GA, preparing for his next great adventure. He's a graduate of Rice University (1977) and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism (MSJ 1978). He's a native of Massapequa, NY.

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Comments 7

  1. syberlink says:
    19 years ago

    I was sued in such a suit. I paid for one year of service in advance in a locked contract. The satellite company gave me and many new customers an ultimatum. Pay us more or we will take away some of what you paid for. Then they did take some of that programming away holding it hostage saying if we agree to pay more, they will give the full service back. I bought another access card in order to keep what I paid for. Attorney’s general from 31 states went after the corporation and the corporation settled out of court. I received a very small amount of that settlement.
    The company then turned and sued me stating I had no right to protect my property from theft. They also said I had not paid for and was not authorized to receive these channels. I also had to receipt to prove payment. They wanted me to give them thousands of dollars. I paid $7000 in litigation cost to defend my right to protect my property through the purchase of an access card. $7000 when it was a well known fact the company had taken the programming from me and many others.
    I may have lost because I just didn’t have the money to fight this as most would not. But the country as well lost. Lost the right to protect and defend there right to protect from theft. It has long been legal to take passive measures to protect that which you own and have purchased from theft. This in Black’s law and in many states and federal constitutions. The purchase of an access card to stop the theft was the very least expensive way to stop this theft. In the end, I was sued for stealing my own property. A reminder is that with this company the access card is bought by the consumer who then permits the company to control the card. That didn’t extend to controlling the card to steal the customers programming how ever. This week it was my property which was stolen and then the stealer tried to later profit in a lawsuit. Next week it will be your property taken. Don’t claim this some kind of mistake as they knew all along the circumstances and really only wanted my money in a private settlement.

    Reply
  2. syberlink says:
    19 years ago

    I was sued in such a suit. I paid for one year of service in advance in a locked contract. The satellite company gave me and many new customers an ultimatum. Pay us more or we will take away some of what you paid for. Then they did take some of that programming away holding it hostage saying if we agree to pay more, they will give the full service back. I bought another access card in order to keep what I paid for. Attorney’s general from 31 states went after the corporation and the corporation settled out of court. I received a very small amount of that settlement.
    The company then turned and sued me stating I had no right to protect my property from theft. They also said I had not paid for and was not authorized to receive these channels. I also had to receipt to prove payment. They wanted me to give them thousands of dollars. I paid $7000 in litigation cost to defend my right to protect my property through the purchase of an access card. $7000 when it was a well known fact the company had taken the programming from me and many others.
    I may have lost because I just didn’t have the money to fight this as most would not. But the country as well lost. Lost the right to protect and defend there right to protect from theft. It has long been legal to take passive measures to protect that which you own and have purchased from theft. This in Black’s law and in many states and federal constitutions. The purchase of an access card to stop the theft was the very least expensive way to stop this theft. In the end, I was sued for stealing my own property. A reminder is that with this company the access card is bought by the consumer who then permits the company to control the card. That didn’t extend to controlling the card to steal the customers programming how ever. This week it was my property which was stolen and then the stealer tried to later profit in a lawsuit. Next week it will be your property taken. Don’t claim this some kind of mistake as they knew all along the circumstances and really only wanted my money in a private settlement.

    Reply
  3. Wblakesx says:
    18 years ago

    Oh yes, zoning code enforcers are doing it. Politics won’t work there.

    Reply
  4. Wblakesx says:
    18 years ago

    Oh yes, zoning code enforcers are doing it. Politics won’t work there.

    Reply
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