I was somewhat surprised to see news (at all, much less so quickly) that "ICANN [is being] ordered by [an] Illinois court to suspend spamhaus.org."  [via Techdirt]  In reporting this news Techdirt serves up what many would view as a delicious piece of irony:

However, if they are forced to defend each and every lawsuit filed by an upset spammer, it would make it prohibitively costly for Spamhaus (or any other such list) to remain in business -- in which case all of us who rely on such lists lose out. It's not clear where this goes from here, but it could represent a serious issue for anyone who keeps an anti-spam list or uses an anti-spam list to filter their email.

Hmmm.  Nuisance suits.  Being forced to defend.  Exorbitant costs of business.  Sound familiar?  The legal (and more important, big picture policy issues) are a bit dense to unpack in a quick late night post.  The case's implications lie well beyond spam and go to issues around enforcment of judgments through seizure/blocking of domain names and websites, who ultimately has jurisdiction over domain names, and the so-called borderless nature of the internet.  The case feels reminiscent of Yahoo's Nazi memorabilia spat, which raised (as best as I recall) thorny questions about sovereignty, jurisdiction, conflicts of laws, and the international reach of rules (maybe some Hague Convention thrown in for good measure).   On the substance, check out a spam-savvy Illinois lawyer's comments here.  I disagree with much of what he says, and I will explain in a later post.  In particular, his comparison of Spamhaus's ROKSO list to a London daily's list of poorly dressed celebrities is, in a word, inapt.

Also check out the AP story here.  I imagine Spamhaus groveling to the AP reporter in the same way that many a mistakenly labeled spammer grovels to Spamhaus:  "If the domain got suspended, it would be an enormous hit for the Net . . . .  It would create an enormous amount of damage on the Internet." 

[I try to keep my editorialization to a minimum, but if there's any lingering doubt about how I feel about Spamhaus let me be perfectly clear:  I am not a fan!]