The company, T3-Direct, alleged Joseph McNichol had acted to place it on the SPEWS.org Web-site, which publishes lists of Internet addresses believed to be used to send out spam.
However, according to ABC reports, the Western Australian District Court had rejected T3-Direct's claim, saying there was no evidence to support it.
McNicol's lawyer, Jeremy Malcolm, reportedly said: "This will certainly be a message to the unsolicited bulk email industry that the courts aren't going to come down on their side just because they've got the resources to back up a legal claim".
I'm delighted to see that commonsense seems to have prevailed in this case and that T3 have been given the drubbing they deserve. Their argument that simply because what they're doing isn't illegal makes what they're doing acceptable is utterly specious. T3 have wasted my time and bandwidth for as long as they've been operating - and if I could sue *them* for that I'd do so in an instant.
Ultimately, though, it's up to Senator Richard Alston (along with the Federal Government) to outlaw spamming in Australia. It may do little to stop the flood of foreign spam - but it would set an example that other countries could follow. And once enough countries follow the example, this plague will be eradicated.