Facebook Wins $873 Million Lawsuit Against Spammer

damn_registrars writes "A US District judge has awarded $873 million dollars to Facebook in a default judgment against a spammer who sent messages to Facebook users about drugs and sex. This is the highest award so far in a civil suit under the CAN-SPAM Act."

Comments

It's too much to discourage anyone.

[onion2k]

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company predicted the judgment will be difficult to collect, but is hoping that its size discourages future abuses at its site.

Except it won't. It's too much. Basic psychology dictates that once you get above a certain risk people will start to ignore it because there's no difference between that and "everything". For people who don't have a great deal to start with losing everything isn't that big a deal. An amount that's a real tangible quantity that someone could conceivably earn is actually a bigger discouragement because people can imagine losing it, and that will put them off because if they can imagine themselves earning it they can envisage themselves losing it.

I'm not suggesting that it should have been any lower of course. I just think we need to be pragmatic about what a punishment is. If we want it to be something that puts other people off doing the same thing then we could think up something better.

Re:It's too much to discourage anyone.

[Fluffeh]

You know, I reckon it would have been much much better to shut the company down (yes the millions of dollars damages will shut it down and facebook might get a few grand out of it) but I say put the spammers into jail for a bit. Not over the top, but say six months?

Closing a company and starting it over in a new name isn't a deterrent. It's a business plan these guys have. Put the owner in the nick for a few months, and I bet he starts chirping a different tune.

Should we celebrate? The same as Spamhaus?

[whoever57]

This appears to be a default judgment against a non-US entity. Is this so much different from the much-derided judgment against Spamhaus?

I suppose we know how to fill in #2

[TheRealMindChild]

1) Start spamable website
2) ???
3) Profit

Re:I suppose we know how to fill in #2

[Rayeth]

Yeah apparently the ??? has always stood for "Sue".

But does it come in the shade of ridiculous

[sakonofie]

Well just because TFA is just that short, here it is in new bold action:

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) â" Facebook has won a $873 million judgment against a Canadian man who bombarded users with millions of unsolicited messages about drugs and sex.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel signed the default judgment Friday, resolving a lawsuit that Facebook filed in August against Adam Guerbuez of Montreal and his business, Atlantis Blue Capital.
Facebook alleged that Guerbuez had fooled users into revealing their passwords so he could send out more than 4 million messages that included promotions for marijuana. Guerbuez could not be located for comment.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company predicted the judgment will be difficult to collect, but is hoping that its size discourages future abuses at its site.

So the standard cost of a foreigner sending me spam is ~$200 per message if they don't show up to court?

Also Facebook, please don't file lawsuits that you don't expect to have any direct impact. The courts are busy enough without you.

Re:Irony?

[The Good Reverend]

Since you added them as friends, and can control what you see from each user, it's not really "Spam", is it?

Your half-hearted attempt to be a cool hater is recognized, but ultimately fails.