Suing Spammers

America Online on Tuesday said it is filing five lawsuits against individuals and companies that are allegedly purveying bulk unsolicited e-mail, or spam, to its members. America Online Sues Spammers [CNET News.com]. Boowah! Spam is destroying the Internet’s real killer app, e-mail, by forcing users towards filtering software that kills the good unsolicited messages along with the hundreds of bad ones for Viagra, penis enlargement and Nigerian ex-dictator’s wives fortunes. It is preventing legitimate marketers from communicating with customers and raising costs for ISPs, enterprises and regular Joes. Legislation won’t do anything. AOL, we salute you!