In the continuing war against spam, Yahoo! has leveled its aim toward the exotic filing a lawsuit this week against a company called, “"East Coast Exotics Entertainment Group Inc. and Epoth LLC" for unlawfully sending sexually-explicit bulk spam e-mail messages to Yahoo! Mail users.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, under the federal CAN-SPAM anti-spam law. In conjunction with Yahoo!'s lawsuit, members of the industry's anti-spam alliance, including America Online, EarthLink and Microsoft also filed lawsuits against unlawful spammers.

"With today's lawsuit against East Coast Exotics Entertainment Group Inc. and Epoth LLC, we are holding spammers directly accountable for unlawfully disguising their identity and using this practice to deceive e-mail users," said Mike Callahan, senior vice president and general counsel, Yahoo! Inc.

To read the full complaint, click here.

This is the second round of junk e-mail-related enforcement actions filed by members of the anti-spam alliance, which was founded in April 2003 and is led by Yahoo!, Microsoft, EarthLink and AOL. On March 10, 2004, these companies collaborated to file the first major industry lawsuits against spammers alleging violations under the new CAN-SPAM federal law, which went into effect on January 1, 2004.

America Online: America Online filed two lawsuits in Federal Court -- both naming numerous "John Does" as Defendants and alleging violations of Federal and State laws. One lawsuit is the very first to expressly target "SPIM" for AOL, and the most significant "spammer" lawsuit ever filed in the industry, as it addresses instant messenger spam and chat room spam. The next lawsuit is the first AOL enforcement action against a spammer peddling controlled substances, including Vicodin and other pharmaceuticals, which are legally available only with a physician's prescription.

EarthLink: EarthLink filed a lawsuit against numerous "John Doe" defendants who used illegal and deceptive e-mails to advertise prescription drugs available without a legitimate prescription and low mortgage or loan rates, in many cases attempting to collect and re-sell consumers' names and contact information. EarthLink's complaint charges the defendants with violating the CAN-SPAM Act along with other federal and state statutes.

Microsoft: The three lawsuits filed by Microsoft allege that defendants spoofed the domains of all four Internet service providers and used open proxies to route the e-mails. The defendants -- one named and two "John Does" -- allegedly sent millions of e-mails soliciting herbal growth supplements, mortgage services and get-rich-quick schemes, all in violation of the CAN-SPAM federal law.