AOL has started to go after spimmers: those trolls trying to hawk Vicodin in chat rooms:

[from America Online | Press Center]

America Online, Inc. today announced it was stepping up its fight against purveyors of unwanted, junk computer messages by filing two new lawsuits in Federal Court. The announcement was made in conjunction with AOL's anti-spam partners Microsoft, EarthLink and Yahoo! - who also announced they filed lawsuits against spammers in courts in Washington State, Georgia, and California.

AOL's lawsuits are noteworthy and unique in nature. The first AOL lawsuit, filed against twenty "John Does", is the Company's very first lawsuit that expressly targets "SPIM" - unwanted communications to online consumers via instant messaging tools or chat rooms.

The other lawsuit is the very first AOL legal action to target a spammer peddling controlled substances, including Vicodin and other pharmaceuticals, which are legally available only with a physician's prescription. This lawsuit, filed against ten "John Does", is also noteworthy because it is the first time AOL is filing a spam lawsuit based on a large number of complaints specifically determined to be from AOL Europe and AOL Canada members.

[from Microsoft's 'spim' suit]

[...] contrary to some reports, while it's AOL's first spim suit, it's actually not the first lawsuit in the industry to target the practice.

Microsoft filed a suit last year in King County Superior Court (download .pdf of complaint) against a Canadian man alleged to have sent spam over the MSN Messenger instant-messaging program, as well as MSN Hotmail. The case is still pending. The complaint also includes a screenshot showing what a spim looks like, in case you haven't had the pleasure.

Despite that suit, spim isn't a major problem on MSN Messenger, according to Aaron Kornblum, Microsoft's Internet safety enforcement attorney. As mentioned in our item about the suits this morning, that's in part because of a "reverse list" feature in MSN Messenger that lets people see when someone else puts them on a buddy list, and, if they want, lets them stop that person from sending them messages. That feature also extends to IM "presence," letting MSN Messenger users block another person from knowing whether or not they're online.