RSS$873 million Facebook award could add fuel to CAN-SPAM lawsuits
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published November 25, 2008, 5:54 PM
Now that courts have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to both Facebook and MySpace, will more civil lawsuits start smacking spammers directly in their wallets?
In a ruling that looks likely to further the use of the federal CAN-SPAM Act in civil lawsuits, MySpace has been awarded $873 million in damages from a Canadian spammer accused of sending sexually explicit messages to members.
The ruling against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital by federal judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California represents the largest judgment in history for an action brought under CAN-SPAM, according to Max Kelly, Facebook's director of security.
"We've all experienced spam -- those unwanted and, sometimes, inappropriate marketing messages. The bad guys behind those messages are always looking to find new ways to annoy people and Facebook's users have been among those targeted. We don't take this affront to our users lying down," Kelly wrote in his blog yesterday.
Signed into law December 16, 2003, CAN-SPAM establishes the United States' first set of national standards for commercial e-mail. The law permits e-mail marketers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail, but only if it meets three basic types of compliance defined in the Act: unsubscribe, content, and sending behavior.
Under "sending behavior compliance," for example, it is illegal under CAN-SPAM to send a message to a harvested e-mail address, through an open relay, or with a false header.
Companies that provide Internet access can sue suspected spammers under the CAN-SPAM Act, as social networks Facebook and MySpace have both already done. In addition, the FTC and other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction. The FTC has reportedly brought almost 30 actions against offenders since 2003.
Facebook accused Guerbuez and his apparently fictitious company of sending more than four million illegal messages to members in March and April offering "male enhancement" drugs and other products.
Also under Facebook's complaint, Guerbuez managed to get Facebook logins and passwords of many members, sometimes taking them to phishing sites. Computers would then automatically log into Facebook profiles and send out more spam.
The court found that Guerbuez illegally accessed Facebook's user profile information to start his spamming activities.
In another recent case involving a social networking site, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines were found guilty of sending unsolicited advertisements for pornography and gambling Web sites to MySpace users. The two were ordered to pay $230 million to MySpace, the largest reward under CAN-SPAM up to that time.
But it isn't really all about the money, according to Facebook's Kelly, who doubts that Guerbuez will be able to come up with anything close to $873 million to pay the damages.
"We are confident that this award represents a powerful deterrent to anyone and everyone who would seek to abuse Facebook and its users," Kelly wrote.
Facebook is still reportedly investigating spam messages in members' profiles which started offering phony Macy's gift cards last month.
Meanwhile, could the Facebook and MySpace rulings serve as precedents for other anti-spam cases, too? Many civil lawsuits filed by ISPs since 2003 under the CAN-SPAM Act are still pending, although some of these have been settled.
to bad that microsoft doesn't get the message and try to prevent and expose spammers that continue to utilize the msn, microsoft groups and microsoft newservers to proliferate garbage.
perhaps, microsoft has their own garbage to worry about.
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I seriously doubt that there are bankruptcy or any other laws that protect illegal businesses or activities. Oh, except for the US gov't, of course.
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Hey BetaNewa,
I understand, from another source(choke, gasp) that the canadian scumbag spammer hasn't been found yet. I and thousands of others who live close (4 km) to the canadian border and who travel to Quebec, etc could be on the lookout for this scum if ONLY some news source would print his PICTURE. Oh yeh, millions of canadians could also be on the lookout but alas just words, no pic. Come on, finish the article. The Hanging Judge
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"In a ruling that looks likely to further the use of the federal CAN-SPAM Act in civil lawsuits, MySpace has been awarded $873 million..."
Ummm, according to every other news source out there, It's FACEBOOK, not MySpace, get your facts straight...
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Nothing is sacred anymore.
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Amazing, as if they will ever get it.. I dont know if there laws are the same as USA, but... Just declare bankruptcy.. and they will never see a penny of it, or just work off the books ;)
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First, bankruptcy is protection from creditors. Judgements from a court is not credit, and not likely to be wiped out.
Secondly, even during bankruptcy, creditors have the right to ask for all but necessities to be liquidated and they get all the proceeds. Not the same thing, but they will see more than "a penny of it", unless they truly own nothing at all.
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As far as I'm aware court judgements/fines are protected against bankruptcy.
Working off the books sucks, no retirement plans etc. so sounds good now but in the future you'll find yourself eating dog food since you can't afford anything else.
Plus not to mention should you get caught one could be looking at criminal proceedings depending on the situation etc.
And it goes on.
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