Earlier this month, Judge James B. Zagel became part of the email marketing industry’s history with his ruling on the landmark e360 Prospect vs. Comcast case. In his decision, Zagel dismissed all of e360’s claims outright, while keeping in play Comcast’s countersuit against the company. Ouch.

To me, the most fascinating of e360’s four charges was that by Comcast blocking their emails from being received by its subscribers, the ISP was essentially in violation of the First Amendment and the right to free speech. Interestingly enough, the judge agreed that “the idea of blocking seems at odds in some way with free speech protection, even though there are limits imposed on the free speech protection of commercial speech, which is, I infer, the principal, if not the only, business of e360.”

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