Warrants

I think that this is the strangest, and yet the most productive use of copyright I�ve ever heard of:

Describing the defendant as “a chronic e-mail abuser who makes a living by sending unwanted spam to consumers,” U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong concluded that Carson’s copying of Habeas’ marks was “egregious and specifically designed to circumvent the spam filters.”

Habeas fights spam by allowing authorized senders to include a copyrighted haiku poem, known as a warrant mark, in e-mail headers. The haiku indicates to spam filters that the accompanying message is not spam — an effort to make sure that legitimate messages get through to recipients. When that haiku is used without Habeas’ say-so, the company can file suit.

Armstrong awarded Habeas a total of $104,103.20, citing the “incalculable damage” Carson caused to the company’s goodwill.