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Spammer Lance Atkinson Fined $16 Million
Nashville Guy writes "According to Australia's The Age, 'A New Zealand man living in Queensland and believed to be behind the world's largest spam operation, has been ordered to pay more than $16 million for running the illegal enterprise. Lance Atkinson, 26, originally from Christchurch, was living in Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast when the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had his assets frozen last year. ... The FTC found Atkinson and American Jody Smith were at the centre of the world's largest internet spam operation, dubbed 'AffKing,' having recruited spammers from around the world.'"
Mr Atkinson will only have to pay his part of the $15.15m fine if he enters the US.
I guess all we can do is pray for extradition?
My work here is dung.
Advertisement wants to be free.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
He was also told to apologise to everyone he'd sent spam to.
Foolishly, the court allowed him to send these apologies via email.
Summation 2
He was totally affking for it.
Is he the man responsible for the larger penis advertisements because if so that sucks, I've just saved up all my money to join... guess I'll have to buy viagra!
According to the original documentation, 'In early 2008, a security company identified one botnet -- which it dubbed "Mega-D" -- that sent sparn promoting Affking's VPXL and King Replica products as the worst botnet in the world, accounting for 32% of all spam.'
The Mega-D botnet consisted at least 264,784 computers.
That's 264,784 UNAUTHORIZED COMPUTER ACCESS FELONIES.
Why the FUCK are we 'fining' someone who committed at least 264,784 felonies? We invade goddamn countries and charge people with war crimes for that level of criminality!
Anti-spam laws are nonsense. Forget the damn anti-spam laws. Lock them up for the felonies they're committing. Extradition would be a lot easier, too. (Of course, we could just find a few hundred IPs this guy hijacked in Australia, turn them over, and have him locked up there his entire life, instead.)
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Where exactly does the 16 million go? Does the federal government get it simply because they have to jurisdiction to make said case? Shouldn't it go to the people who were actually subject to the damages caused by the spam?
Wait, who am I kidding...
For a while, the likes of Leo Kuvayev and his cronies were taking advantage of the lax laws in New Zealand and purchasing their spamming (and spamvertised) domains there. It took quite some time to get the New Zealanders to distance themselves from the profit of those crimes, now it is encouraging to see they are taking a more active anti-spam stance.
Its too bad that in the end this all won't be worth squat.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Lock them up for the felonies they're committing. Extradition would be a lot easier, too. (Of course, we could just find a few hundred IPs this guy hijacked in Australia, turn them over, and have him locked up there his entire life, instead.)
Although as you have rightly noted extradition is extremely difficult, especially when you consider some of the countries where spammers are currently hiding.
However, that is all moot because no amount of law enforcement, threats, or even executions will stop the spammers. And why is that, you might ask? Because no law enforcement tactic addresses the underlying problem that drives spam. For every spammer kidnapped, thrown in jail, murdered, etc... there are many, many, more waiting to take his place. Even more so, there are many people who want his money.
In short, spam is an economic problem. If you really give a damn about the problem, and want to do something more than just make yourself feel better, you would pay attention to the economics that drive spam. Spammers didn't choose their profession to piss you off - they did it to make money. If you want to stop spam, do something about the profits and the problem will go away on its own.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Now that they've cut the head off the Hydra, life should be good.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
but saddam gassed his own computers
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm sure some idiot will think it's real, all you need is one. Offer $5M for his head in a box.
Do I really care about SPAM?
Not nearly as much as I do junk mail.
Why? I pay for my junk mail.
It is delivered for next to nothing by the United States Postal Service.
I pay taxes therefor I am actually paying for the delivery of this garbage.
They are just like spam, they try to look legitimate to trick you into opening them.
Also, they are more hazardous to the environment than spam.
I get NetFlix. If I don't have a new netflix due in the mail I don't get my mail. Why... because ALL of it is garbage.
I pay all my bills online. My car payment, everything. It is all garbage.
If we extradite him, could we possibly put him in a cell with Roman Polanski and put him in a little gingham dress?
Queensland is in Australia, not New Zealand, he formerly lived in N.Z. and like most NZers in trouble with the law, moved to Australia. Australia does have a extradition treaty with the U.S.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Since their advertising is ending. Sell your Viagra and Cialis stock today. And what about that poor guy in South Africa with all that Bank money. Who will help him.
The USPS should offer RecycleDirect service. With RecycleDirect, you specify which classes of mail are automatically forwarded to the regional mixed paper recycling center nearest the sender. RecycleDirect mail will be diverted at the first sorting post office directly to the recycling center.
spam is an economic problem
No, it's not. Not since all the ways to do it without committing felonies were stopped. Spamming today is organized crime.
Does he actually have 16 million dollars? Because if he doesn't wtf is the point in any of this? To send a message? What message that apparently they are retarded? Message received, over and out.
Quit pissing about and fine him 16 Billi... no Quardrillion dollars, that'll teach'em!
spam is an economic problem
No, it's not. Not since all the ways to do it without committing felonies were stopped. Spamming today is organized crime.
But why is the spam sent out? The answer is extremely simple.
Economics
Spam is sent because it is profitable. No matter what you tell yourself, spam isn't sent to you to piss you off, flood your inbox, waste your time, or anything like that. Spam is sent to make money.
Hence spam is an economic problem, and if you want to truly deal with it, you need an economic solution. If spamming ceases to be profitable, then there will cease to be spam. The spammers just want to get paid, that's all.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I pay for my junk mail.
It is delivered for next to nothing by the United States Postal Service.
I pay taxes therefor I am actually paying for the delivery of this garbage.
Actually you don't. The USPS is self-supporting. Since its reorganization into an independent organization, the USPS has become self-sufficient and has not received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s
Free Martian Whores!
and like most NZers in trouble with the law, moved to Australia. Australia does have a extradition treaty with the U.S.
Oh, so you know Peter then. Say hi to him for me please will you
. .
There are limitations that must be applied to freedom of speech in a civilized society and the limitation of abusive spam speech is one.
This ought to establish that free speech is not an absolute right--it is a right that must be limited in some circumstances. The scope and manner of those limitations on free speech are a good indicator of the basic freedom and health of that society imposing them.
I hate abusive spammers and I favor the limitation of their freedom to speak to me with abusive spam that I do not want to receive!
When I was a chauffeur a few years back, I had some clients who were returning to Georgia from vacation in Mexico who stopped in Scottsdale on their private jet... to eat at In-n-Out Burger. Seriously. They were even nice enough to treat me to lunch. :D
The problem of spam had a number of very simple technological solutions. Instead the government had to get involved...
Whenever a problem is solved through the initiation of force, the collective mob grows stronger and the individual grows weaker...
Unsolicited e-mails today, doubleplusungoodthinkmails tomorrow!
The only limits to one's rights should be the rights of other human beings, and the one common limitation for freedom of speech is property rights. It is the property owner(s) who should decide who can come on his property, whether standing on a soapbox with a megaphone is allowed or not, and whether one is allowed to yell "fire". There is no such thing as a "positive right" to force someone to pay for your lunch, to prevent someone from talking about you on their property, and so on. It is your responsibility to register your property, put up warning signs if you don't want trespassers, and so on. You, not "mommy government", is responsible for configuring your servers to behave how you want them to behave!
I don't care of they get him on U.S. soil or not - just get the dang money, and distribute $1,000.00 of it to every American who is online, to help pay for our lost time and money in dealing with spam, spam-filters, white lists, black lists, lost legitimate emails due to the above mentioned spam filters, the aggravation of not being able to use port 25 anymore... it's a long list.
And $ 1,000.00 each is probably letting him off easy.