Comcast strikes back against E360

Some quick background: alleged spammer E360 has sued internet provider Comcast because of Comcast's refusal to deliver E360 spam to Comcast customers. See my March 4 entry for more information and Comcast's response.

This week, the other shoe dropped as Comcast has filed a countersuit against E360, David Linhardt, and many of its related companies (Maverick Direct Marketing, Bargain Depot, Northshore Hosting, etc.) for spamming, computer fraud, abuse of process and other violations. The full text of the lawsuit can be found at Spamsuite, and it's a doozy.

Some of the highlights:

• Comcast states in no uncertain terms that E360 et al are spammers.
• E360 fabricates opt-in records (¶29).
• In 2006, Linhardt called Comcast and "fraudulently represented to a Comcast employee that all of the intended recipients of e360's email messages have opted-in to receive such messages" (¶34).
• In 2007, Linhardt sent a letter claiming the same thing (Exhibit A).
• Comcast offered to help them with their email practices but E360 refused, asserting that they would learn how to circumvent Comcast's filtering system through discovery (¶35)
• After obtaining a court order preventing Spamhaus from listing them as spammers, E360 began marketing their "IP Protection Services" in which they would arrange for third-parties to be included in the court order for a fee (¶41-45, Exhibit B) [I've written about this elsewhere].
• Virtumundo, a spammer, has purchased E360's IP Protection Services (¶46-48, Exhibit C)
• E360 keeps filing, dropping, and re-filing lawsuits against spam-fighters. (¶49-50)
• E360 filed its lawsuit against Comcast knowing it was without merit (¶76)
• E360 filed the lawsuit in order to use the discovery process to learn how to circumvent Comcast's filtering system. (¶77)

Comcast asks that E360 be enjoined from sending spam, that E360 pay damages, that E360 return their illegal profits, and that E360 pay Comcast's legal costs.

What I find most interesting is Comcast's assertion in paragraph 76 that E360 filed this lawsuit in order to use the discovery process to learn how to circumvent Comcast's spam filters.

Ever since this lawsuit was filed by E360, I've been wondering what their motivation was, since they must have known they could never win. It seems that we now have at least part of the answer.