Gordon v. Virtumundo Inc et al

Filing 83

DECLARATION of Michael Shopmaker filed by Defendant Virtumundo Inc re 53 MOTION for Partial Summary Judgment (Newman, Derek)

Gordon v. Virtumundo Inc et al

Doc. 83

Case 2:06-cv-00204-JCC

Document 83

Filed 01/08/2007

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 v. VIRTUMUNDO, INC, a Delaware corporation d/b/a ADNOWLEDGEMAIL.COM; ADKNOWLEDGE, INC., a Delaware corporation, d/b/a ADKNOWLEDGEMAIL.COM; SCOTT LYNN, an individual; and JOHN DOES, 1-X, Defendants. JAMES S. GORDON, Jr., a married individual, d/b/a `GORDONWORKS.COM'; OMNI INNOVATIONS, LLC., a Washington limited liability company, Plaintiffs,

The Honorable John C. Coughenour

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE NO. CV06-0204JCC DECLARATION OF MICHAEL SHOPMAKER IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANTS' OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT NOTE ON MOTION CALENDAR: January 12, 2007

I, Michael Shopmaker, swear under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States to the following: 1. I am president and CEO of Defendant Virtumundo, Inc. I am over eighteen

(18) years of age, competent to testify to the matters stated in this declaration, and make this declaration from personal knowledge of those matters, except where otherwise stated. 2. Virtumundo is the registrant (i.e., owner) of each of the domain names:

<vm-mail.com>, <vmadmin.com>, and <virtumundo.com>.
NEWMAN & NEWMAN, ATTORNEYS AT LAW, LLP 505 Fifth Ave. S., Ste. 610 Seattle, Washington 98104 [phone]

Dockets.Justia.com

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3. the names. 4.

Virtumundo is identified in the WHOIS database as the registrant of each of

The WHOIS database is a publically available source to learn who is the

registrant of any .com domain name. The registrant provides its own contact information in the WHOIS database. 5. A WHOIS query on any of the domain names at issue here will return

information including Virtumundo's name, correct physical address, and telephone number. 6. Email senders who wish to obscure their identity may provide inaccurate

contact information when registering domain names, or use "domain proxy" services to prevent their contact information from appearing in the WHOIS database. 7. Virtumundo does not engage in such practices, and indeed endeavors to

make itself easy to identify and locate from the information in the "from" lines of the emails it sends. 8. Every "from" line from Virtumundo contains an accurate and truthful

domain name that is registered to Virtumundo listed in WHOIS. In addition, the body of each email Virtumundo sends always includes accurate contact information for Virtumundo and working "unsubscribe" links. 9. In the course of its business, Virtumundo creates and transmits emails as

part of promotional campaigns for its customers. In those situations, Virtumundo typically uses the "from name" field to identify the customer. 10. In other circumstances, Virtumundo uses the "from name" field to identify

the line of business to which the email pertains. Thus, an email advertising police training might have the "from name" of "CriminalJustice." 11. This performs three functions. First, it informs the recipient that the

message is a commercial email, rather than an email from a particular individual. Second, it informs the recipient of the general subject of the message. Third, it accurately identifies Virtumundo's business line that initiated the message. It is not "advertising
DECL. OF M. SHOPMAKER RE: OPP'N TO MOT. FOR PARTIAL S.J. CASE NO. CV06-0204C - ii
NEWMAN & NEWMAN, ATTORNEYS AT LAW, LLP 505 Fifth Ave. S., Ste. 610 Seattle, Washington 98104 [phone]

Case 2:06-cv-00204-JCC

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