AOL sues instant message spammers

American Online said that they filed federal lawsuits accusing a number of unnamed defendants of violating federal and state laws by sending "spim" to instant message accounts and Internet chat rooms. "Spim" are bulk messages. This is the first time that AOL has taken legal action against spim specifically. AOL and its anti-spam partners Earthlink, Microsoft, and Yahoo have set up lawsuits against spam as well.