A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland upheld the Maryland Commercial Electronic Mail Act (MCEMA), Md. Code Com. Law § 14-3001 (2002). The challenge was made by an out-of-state advertising network arguing that the statute violates the dormant commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Plaintiff was an ISP who sued website operators claiming that operators were generating unsolicited commercial emails in violation of the Maryland Anti-Spam statute.

The court held that the benefits to ISPs and users in reducing strains on system and irritation from clutter created by unwanted messages clearly outweighed any burdens on interstate commerce, and that in enacting the CAN-SPAM, Congress expressly accorded states right to regulate false and misleading email transmissions. The court relied on Washington v. Heckel, 24 P.3d 404 (Wash. 2001), in which the Washington Supreme Court upheld that state’s nearly identical anti-spam statute against a dormant commerce clause challenge.

Beyond Systems, Inc. v. Keynetics, Inc., 2006 WL 687156, D.Md.,2006., Feb 14, 2006 (sorry, could not find readily available PDF of opinion, if you have a link, please share it)

Interesting materials on the technical and legal fight against spam - the 2006 MIT Spam Conference was held this week and the organizers have already posted webcasts of the events. Coming soon are ISOs of DVDs with materials and higher quality video streams.