Four years ago a bulk mailer called e360 sued the Spamhaus Project for a broad range of alleged evils interfereing with e360's allegedly highly successful email marketing business, which most of the rest of us considered to be spamming to sell junk. Due to a variety of unfortunate legal moves on both sides, it's dragged on for years. I blogged about it last year when the trial court decided that of the three causes for damage that e360 had alleged, two showed nothing, so he got a nominal $1 each, but for the third, for lost business, he awarded $27,000. Spamhaus, now ably represented pro bono by Jenner and Block, appealed on the basis that the judge had misinterpreted e360's numbers, which were in any event not credible.
Today the appeals court ruled in Spamhaus' favor, reducing the third award to $1, for a total of $3, which Spamhaus (or more likely their friends in the US) will pay. In appeals cases, the loser has to pay the winner's costs, so Jenner and Block will presumably be going after e360 for that.
For more analysis see Laura Atkins' Word to the Wise, Mickey Chandler's Spamtacular, and Venkat Balasubramani at Circle ID.
