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Facebook Wins $873 Million Lawsuit Against Spammer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the also-my-uncle-has-some-free-money-for-you dept.

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."

4 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. It's too much to discourage anyone. by onion2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    http://twitter.com/onion2k
  2. Re:I suppose we know how to fill in #2 by Rayeth · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  3. Re:Irony? by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Who gets the money? by izomiac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hypothetically, if the $837M judgment could be collected, who would receive it, Facebook or the users who were spammed? (I only ask in an attempt to be less cynical.) I mean, sure, Facebook might have lost a few users due to the spam, and there in had a reduction in the subsequent ad revenue, but $837M worth? It seems to me they're being rewarded for allowing someone to exploit their system...