Microsoft fights spammers, spam laws. (Infrastructure News Review).

Microsoft Corp announced, with much fanfare, that it has filed 15 lawsuits in the US and UK against individuals and businesses it believes are spammers.

Critics said the move was a PR smokescreen aimed at diverting attention from the fact that the company was simultaneously trying to weaken California state legislation that would give consumers the right to sue spammers.

While Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith stood alongside Washington state attorney general Christine Gregoire at a press conference announcing the lawsuits, Microsoft representatives were persuading California lawmakers to change pending spam law.

California state senator Debra Bowen, author of bill SB-12, which would allow California consumers to sue when they receive unsolicited commercial email, said Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo, which are opposed to the bill, "don't want to ban spam".

She said: "They want to license it and make money from spammers by deciding what's 'legitimate' or 'acceptable' unsolicited commercial advertising, then charging those advertisers a fee to wheel their spam into your e-mail inbox without your permission."

According to a Bowen spokesperson, Microsoft persuaded the California Assembly to suggest amendments to SB-12 that would only allow a consumer to sue when they could demonstrate actually damages, and to delay a vote on the bill for two weeks.

While receiving spam is a major annoyance, most California internet users have flat-fee internet connections and most of the costs of spam are incurred upstream. Therefore actual damages are either imperceptibly small or impossibly difficult to prove for the average consumer.