MySpace Wins Legal Suit Against a Prominent Spammer

According to a news item from Associated Press published on June 16, 2008, MySpace could collect $6 Million from an infamous Internet marketer whom the popular social networking site accused of spamming unsolicited advertisements to its members.

Thus, as per the ruling by Philip Boesch, the Arbitrator, Scott Richter and his Westminster, Colo.-based online marketing firm, Media Breakaway LLC, should give $4.8 Million to MySpace as a compensation for the damages caused and $1.2 Million as an Attorney's fees, as reported by Associated Press on June 16, 2008.

Legal investigations into the case suggested that Richter, who was accused of pushing over 100 Million spam mails per day, faced a lawsuit by MySpace in January 2007. At that time, MySpace sued the spammer linking him to an August 2006 attack in which he hit MySpace users with unsolicited e-mails promoting a site named Consumerpromotionscenter.com.

However, as per the Arbitrator's inferences, the accused in the incident sent messages from phished MySpace accounts, as reported by CIO on June 16, 2008.

Meanwhile, according to the case's proceedings, it became evident that the junk e-mails were distributed to a MySpace community that lacked equipment to tackle any security issue.

But, according to Boesch, MySpace had initially employed only a couple of junior employees to tackle the problem but now the security staff of the company has been increased to nearly 40.

Meanwhile, as MySpace wins the verdict, Media Breakaway will be made liable for sending unwanted commercial bulletins distributed across MySpace users, a sheer violation of MySpace's Terms of Use. However, it is maintained that the firm would not be made liable for the deeds of its partners who violated the terms and condition of Media Breakaway itself.

Reports received indicate that this isn't the first time that a Scott Richter company was going to spend millions of dollars in its fight against spam charges. Three years back in 2005 his former company, Optinrealbig.com, had paid $7 Million in admission to similar charges from Microsoft.

Following that, Scott Richter's name was erased from anti-spam firm Spamhaus's list of recognized spammers the same year.

Related article: MySpace Wants Apple To Update QuickTime

» SPAMfighter News - 7/3/2008