This is interesting

http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/031115aolsuit.shtml

A Maine District Court judge ruled on Thursday that a Portland man who is
suing America Online over e-mail spam he receives can't pursue his case in
Maine.

Judge Keith Powers told Louis Philippe that he would have to go to
Virginia, where AOL's headquarters are located, to sue the nation's largest
Internet service provider.

Philippe, 48, said after the hearing that he will sue AOL in Virginia for
the $1,680 he says he is owed for the time he has spent dealing with
unsolicited e-mails.

He said he also intends to file a new lawsuit in Portland accusing AOL of
violating Maine's new anti-spam law, which wasn't in effect when he filed
his first case.

The law, which took effect Sept. 13, says a person who receives spam can
bring a civil action against the person or company that sent it or allowed
it to get through. Under the law, the court can order fines of as much as
$250 for each violation.

"I just feel like there should be some relief for the 24 million AOL
customers who have to put up with this," Philippe said. "Somebody has to
challenge them."

Philippe, a music and theater producer, said he used to delete the
unsolicited e-mails from his inbox. But when they multiplied over time, he
called AOL's customer service department to complain.

He said he was advised to do one of two things: set up his account to block
specific e-mail addresses, or create a list of e-mail addresses from which
he was willing to accept messages.

He responded that those solutions wouldn't work because the spam comes from
hundreds of addresses and because he uses the account for business and he
doesn't want to block potential clients.

Philippe then followed instructions in his contract with AOL and started
forwarding every unsolicited e-mail to AOL.

Then he began mailing invoices to the accounts payable department, charging
$10 an hour to offset the costs of handling the e-mails.

The company never responded, so Philippe filed his lawsuit in District
Court asking for more than $1,600 in overdue service fees.

Portland attorney Jonathan Mermin was hired to represent AOL in the case.
He told Powers on Thursday that the lawsuit belongs in Virginia because
Philippe, along with all other AOL members, agree to a terms-of-service
contract before signing on.

The 11-page contract includes the phrase, "exclusive jurisdiction for any
claim or dispute against AOL resides in the courts of the Commonwealth of
Virginia," Mermin said.

Philippe tried to argue that it could be too expensive for him to fight the
case in Virginia, and that he could be deprived of his day in court as a
result.

Powers rejected Philippe's argument, but acknowledged that such service
agreements can be tricky and inconvenient for customers.

"I think most people who sign these agreements have no idea what they are
getting into," Powers said. "It's not good public policy. And it may not be
helpful to you. But they don't want to be sued in 50 places."




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