Virgin Net, Virgin Group Plc’s internet service provider, has issued a writ against a former subscriber over an alleged series of spamming incidents. The writ is believed to be first of its kind, and could set a legal precedent for junk emailers.

Virgin claims that Adrian Paris, of Camberley, England, sent out a quarter of a million pieces of junk email between July and September 1998, under the name ProPhoto UK. The emails contained details of a pyramid scheme attempting to sell a list of email addresses for advertising purposes. Virgin said it approached Paris after discovering the spam, and he apologized, claiming the mail was sent by mistake.

Virgin claims Paris then opened another three accounts and repeated the spamming. Thousands of complaints flooded into Virgin Net and other ISPs, prompting an ISP association to blackhole the service, meaning other ISPs could ban mail from Virgin subscribers coming to their own accounts.

Virgin issued a writ Thursday, to which Paris has 14 days to respond. The company is claiming 50,000 pounds ($80,740) of damages, based on loss of business, under breach of contract and trespass laws. Subscribers to Virgin, like most other ISPs, must agree not to spam when opening accounts, but the decision to sue based on trespass is believed to be unprecedented. Virgin claims Paris trespassed onto its computer system in order to send the spam.

Similarly, BiblioTech Ltd, which runs a web-based email service out of London, has declared itself the ‘Lone Ranger’ of anti-spammers, due to its diligent legal pursuit of several alleged US spammers. BiblioTech says it refuses to accept an out-of-court monetary settlement from Georgia-based Benchmark Print Supplies and other defendants, and instead intends to have the companies sign a declaration that they will never spam any ISP ever again.

The case, currently running in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, may force the defendants to accept a $1m fine, payable if they are found to have spammed any other ISP on the planet. BiblioTech says this is to prevent the spammers targeting smaller ISPs which do not have the resources to defend themselves legally against such attacks.

The suits come in the same week the European Parliament is expected to make a decision on the issue of spam (see related story).