RSSMicrosoft Settles with 'Spam King'
By Ed Oswald | Published August 9, 2005, 10:06 AM
Microsoft on Tuesday said it had reached a settlement agreement with Scott Richter, more commonly known as the "Spam King." As part of the agreement, Richter and his company, OptInRealBig.com, will pay over $7 million in damages to Microsoft and have agreed to change their mailing practices.
In 2003, Richter was sued by New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, who at the time said that within a two-month period special e-mail addresses set up to catch spam received over 8,000 messages containing over 40,000 fraudulent statements. Spitzer called Richter one of the three biggest spammers in the world at that time.
The settlement is conditioned on the promise that Richter would rescind his motions to file for bankruptcy in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver. The company said in a joint statement with Microsoft that it would file the motion to dismiss on Tuesday.
"This settlement is a victory for consumers who rely on the Internet because it also means fewer unwanted e-mails in your inbox," Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel said in an open letter. "Richter has agreed to send e-mail only to those who have requested it, complying fully with all federal and state anti-spam laws. Before changing his practices, Richter sent, and assisted others in sending, more than 38 billion e-mails a year."
Of the settlement money received by Microsoft, $5 million will be reinvested into the fight against spam, including research and development. As a token of appreciation to the state of New York for it's help in the case, Microsoft will donate $1 million to fund computer access for the poor at community centers statewide.
In a statement, Richter assured that he would follow federal and state spam laws from here on out. "In response to Microsoft's and the New York Attorney General's lawsuits, we made significant changes to OptInRealBig.com's e-mailing practices and have paid a heavy price," Mr. Richter said.
In July, OptInRealBig was removed from a list of known spam operators in anticipation of Tuesday's settlement. Richter's company has also agreed to three years of oversight to ensure compliance.
I, personally, think they need to stick electrodes to his nuts and shock him a few thousand times ... either that or give one watt for every message he sent in a month *big grin*.
It's good this a$$ got what was coming to him. Now if only we could prosecute China...
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|Spammers Sux! Do away with ALL of them. Dealing with spam on my mail server daily has become a real chore... and for all who run mail servers, I'm sure you know what I am talking about!
It's one thing to get spam as a regular Joe user, but it's a whole different story if you are the one running the Mail Server and trying to keep on top of these idiots who insist on sending so much freakin junk.
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|Hurray for MS.
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|Maybe I missed something here. What do the people who actually had to put up with his Spam get from the settlement???
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As part of the agreement, Richter and his company, OptInRealBig.com, will pay over $7 million in damages to Microsoft and have agreed to change their mailing practices.
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|"Maybe I missed something here. What do the people who actually had to put up with his Spam get from the settlement???"
Hopefully they’ll get less spam in the future with an extra $5M now being invested in the anti-spam fight
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|I guess my thought was that perhaps the money would have served more purpose in the hands of the FTC or other enforcement agencies in pursuing prosecution of spammers...
As an analogy, when illegal drug money and fines are obtained, the funds generally go to some enforcement agency, in pursuit of the illegal activity, rather than to a private company.
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|Microsoft _IS_ enforcing and prosecuting spammers. They kept 1 million, gave 1 million to New York City, and reinvested the rest of the 5 million into their spam fighting efforts.
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|So in effect they kept 6 million and will put 83.3% of it to a good cause.
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|Microsoft has no enforcement authority, as does the FTC. I still believe that the money should have been given to an enforcement agency, working for the interest of all, rather than to one for-profit corporation. Back to my original analogy....funds from drug dealers goes to enforcement agencies with the authority to enforce, investigate and convict. Better to take this action and attempt to strike at the source of the spam, rather than to try to block it, after it's sent.
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|Good.
'nuff said.
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