Slashdot Mirror
California Sues Spammer for $2 Million
KilroyTheVeg writes "The Mercury News reports that the California Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, filed suit against Internet marketer PW Marketing LLC, accusing the company of illegally spamming millions of Californians. The Story is here and the Sidney Morning Herald also has the story here.
The suit named PW Marketing LLC (note:subpoena in link is third one down the page) and its owners Paul Willis and Claudia Griffins defendants in the suit which seeks "at least" $US2 million from them for allegedly flouting several state consumer protection laws banning spam mail. All I can say is Make 'em pay, it's the only way to hurt 'em where it counts." Update: 09/30 22:02 GMT by T : Note, that's Sydney Morning Herald.
Lawyers spamming us with
"make money fast!!!
SUE US!!!"
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
some Californian politicians were unimpressed when they're penis didn't GROW FOUR TO FIVE INCHES OVERNIGHT. Also, it seems that some lesbian twins didn't want their 'hot bodies' after all.
The State of California issued a subpoena for their email list, and then emailed everyone on the list asking if they'd received spam and would like to seek damages?
paintball
All the poor guy did was spam
Just because he only steals a couple of cents from a million people, doesn't mean it's not theft.
What if we arrested multiple mailers to real mailboxes?
Well, if they forged stamps in an attempt to send millions envelopes, I'm sure you would.
My suspicion is that most of the worst spammers are slimy con-artists types, who run MLM scams, "make-money-fast" deals, and probably run their "business" on a cash-only basis. This old article, assuming it is true, shows the archetype: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/06/07/131825 2&mode=nested&tid=111
I bet that few of them report their ill-gotten gains to the IRS properly. Seems like one quick IRS operation could put a lot of them out of business in short order, without the need for any new laws to be carefully crafted or executed.
It's called legal precedent. In other words, once you've gone through the pain and hassle of pushing one of these through court, then it makes it a whole lot easier to get the next one.
As to the "just one," I admit I haven't read the article on this one, but remember that these are usually SPAM services that put these things out. In other words, this isn't just one message we're talking about, but potentially thousands of "clients", each one with hundreds of thousands of individual emails to users in California. Sure, knock one out and a hundred more jump in to fill the gap, but if you can prove that it will cost you money to spam CA residents, then people will start thinking twice about all those get rich quick messages. A lot of other states are watching this case, and if CA can make it stick, there will be other states to follow.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
"Statistically, California residents are the most responsive consumers to e-mail advertisers who offer various products and services"
When enterred into Babelfish, returns:
"Statistically, California residents are the most stupid."
paintball
Sure, make them pay. But then, chop them up into small pieces, put the pieces into gallon jugs of gasoline, set the gas on fire and throw the burning jugs into SF Bay on national tee vee.
Spammers have proven to be so stupid that only the most Flagrantly Over the Top Demonstration of Hatred will teach some of them a lesson.
That's right, spammers: you're all incoherent stumble-bums, whose ravings are not listened to in polite society. When we can legally kill you, we will.
Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
is here (PDF format).
Government has no right interfering in the business activities of spammers.
How about
"Government has no right interfering in the business activities of mafia."
Theft is illegal. Spam is theft.
Government has every right to "interefere" with such "business" activities.