“E360 acknowledges that spam is a serious industry problem,” according to Dave Linhardt, President of e360Insight. “E360’s policy is to send email only to those individuals that want to receive it. Spamhaus’ blocking technology effectively takes permission and consent out of the hands of consumers and puts it in the hands of a secret organization of anonymous vigilantes known only in the industry as Spamhaus volunteers.”

E360's position is that Spamhaus.org is a fanatical, vigilante organization that operates in the United States with blatant disregard for U.S. law. In addition, E360 has proven that Spamhaus routinely exposes their customers and volunteers to extreme legal risk by continuing to engage in improper blacklisting, defamation, extortion and blackmail in the name of fighting spam.

E360 initially filed the lawsuit in Illinois Circuit Court, but Spamhaus.org was granted a motion to move the case to U.S. Federal Court. Upon receiving copies of the evidence and a list of discovery questions, Spamhaus.org withdrew their response to the suit, fired their attorney and removed themselves from the legal proceedings. “In his recent public comments, Mr. Linford is hiding behind a false understanding of the law,” said Dave Linhardt, President of E360. “The fact of the matter is that Spamhaus actively markets and sells his data feed service to companies in the U.S., is conducting business in the U.S., is improperly interrupting business in the U.S. and is using servers located in the U.S. Therefore, Spamhaus and Mr. Linford are indeed subject to US law. We are simply holding Spamhaus to account.”

Spamhaus sells its Data Feed Service on Spamhaus.org to companies and individuals in the United States. The following link to a price calculator for this service currently displayed on spamhaus.org. (http://www.spamhaus.org/datafeed/pricecalculator.lasso). The prices are displayed in US dollars. According to the website, it costs $14,500 for an unlimited license to Spamhaus’ email blocking technology. E360 believes that thousands of companies and organizations in the U.S. are currently using Spamhaus’ technology to block email messages sent to their servers.

“In our case, Spamhaus does not seem to have any regard for ensuring the information contained in their blocking technology is accurate,” says Linhardt. “This incorrect information is maintained on their blacklist effecting thousands of network administrators in the U.S. who are using Spamhaus to improperly block email. In addition, Spamhaus and Mr. Steve Linford continue in their attempts to smear our name by knowingly publishing false information about our company. As a result, they continue to interfere with our legitimate business and the legitimate businesses of hundreds of other U.S. companies in our industry.”

“Upon receipt of court documents in this matter, Spamhaus.org created 13 new listings and added them to their blocking technology in an effort to enact retribution on our organization for taking legal action,” according to Mr. Linhardt. Among the Spamhaus listings, several were completely inaccurate according to Mr. Linhardt’s signed affidavit. “In their continued attempts to interrupt our business, Spamhaus listed several hundred ip addresses that have never been in our control. Spamhaus also listed several hundred ip addresses that have not been used to send email of any kind. They even listed my cable modem connection at my home office because I posted a response to a message board on Google groups.”

According to E360’s internal estimates, Spamhaus' email blocking technologies are used by approximately 65% of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the U.S. 

“I think it’s fair to assume that Mr. Linford’s customers would be interested in learning that Spamhaus knowingly maintains inaccurate information on its blacklist and is currently in violation of the Federal Court order,” says Linhardt. “This Federal Court ruling is a victory for legitimate marketers and for consumers who have had their email messages wrongfully blocked by Spamhaus.org and its customers.”

E360Insight, LLC (E360) is a permission based, multi-channel marketing company focused on cost effective customer acquisition solutions. E360 provides consumers with notification, choice and control as it relates to the receipt of marketing messages. Consumers opt-in to E360’s programs and must meet E360’s confirmation standards in order to receive marketing messages. Once entered, consumers can opt-out to cancel their subscription at any time for any reason. E360’s lines of business include performance email, multi-channel list rental, data licensing and lead generation. By using E360’s marketing solutions, companies can dramatically increase revenue and lower customer acquisition costs.