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Whether or not ICANN would comply is unclear. The organization did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
But shutting down Spamhaus is certainly a possibility, according to Prince. "I don't know what ICANN will do, but I bet they'll
at least consider complying," he wrote.
If ICANN does shut Spamhaus down, it could be bad news for e-mail users. Spam now makes up about 90 percent of all e-mail
and Spamhaus reckons that it helps block between 8 billion and 10 billion of these messages per day.
Spamhaus's spammer blacklist is used by several technology vendors including Microsoft.
Spamhaus could not be reached for comment, but the organization has said that it intends to appeal the ruling. "The Illinois
ruling shows that U.S. courts can be bamboozled by spammers with ease, and that no proof is required in order to obtain judgments
over clearly foreign entities." Spamhaus said in a note on its Web site.
"Spamhaus is, however, concerned at how far a U.S. court will go before asking itself if it has jurisdiction, and is intending
to appeal the ruling in order to stamp out further attempts by spammers to abuse the U.S. court system in this way."
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
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