Texas singles spammer was wrong, court rules

An online dating service does not have the right to blast unsolicited email at thousands of University of Texas email addresses, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said on Tuesday that the university did not fall foul of federal law or the US Constitution when blocking a torrent of spam from White Buffalo Ventures' LonghornSingles.com site.

The University of Texas may "implement the Regents' Rules without violating" spammers' rights, a three-judge panel unanimously concluded.

White Buffalo, an Austin, Texas, start-up that boasts of making "a ton of moolah" by promoting relationship-based websites, began its bulk email campaign in February 2003 by filing a freedom of information request that gave it nearly all the university's email addresses. Two months later, it began deluging the school's servers with commercial solicitations - and had its internet addresses blocked after refusing to stop when asked.

Most spammers might halt their efforts at that point but White Buffalo was unusually determined. It filed a lawsuit against the University of Texas and sought a court injunction protecting what amounted to a right to spam - citing both the federal Can-Spam Act and the First Amendment, which broadly limits a government university's ability to restrict free speech.

The case appears to be the first in which a court considered how the Can-Spam Act - which overrules most state laws dealing with junk email - regulates how a state university can install spam filters.

In its ruling this week, the 5th Circuit refused to overturn a trial judge's opinion siding with the university. It concluded the Can-Spam Act was never intended to block an internet service provider, even one that is part of a government-run university, from filtering out unwanted commercial solicitations. But the judges did suggest the University of Texas could have taken less drastic steps by filtering email rather than blocking all correspondence from a range of internet addresses.

Neither the University of Texas nor White Buffalo immediately responded to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Declan McCullagh writes for CNET News.com