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1st Trial Under California Spam Law Slams Spammer

Posted by timothy on from the righteous-win dept.

www.sorehands.com writes "In the first case brought by a spam recipient to actually go to trial in California, the Superior Court of California held that people who receive false and deceptive spam emails are entitled to liquidated damages of $1,000 per email under California Business & Professions Code Section 17529.5. In the California Superior Court ruling (PDF), Judge Marie S. Weiner made many references to the fact that Defendants used anonymous domain name registration and used unregistered business names in her ruling. This is different from the Gordon case, where one only had to perform a simple whois lookup to identify the sender; here, Defendants used 'from' lines of 'Paid Survey' and 'Your Promotion' with anonymously registered domain names. Judge Weiner's decision makes it clear that the California law is not preempted by the I CAN-SPAM Act. This has been determined in a few prior cases, including my own. (See http://www.barbieslapp.com/spam for some of those cases.)"

11 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Missing item... by LostCluster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Uhm, you're supposed to post an web or e-mail address link so people can reach you in the summary.

  2. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This is what should happen for all SPAMMERs. Once this happens to everyone, there would be thicker lines drawn between what is SPAM and whats not. Organizations that do SPAM to provide their advertisements for FREE, even the ones that have the UNSUBSCRIBE button should start getting this kind of penalties.

  3. Re:One jurisdiction down, how many to go? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just one... Kentucky!

  4. Better headline by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Slamming spam lands spammer in slammer"

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Better headline by d474 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Slamming spam lands spammer in slammer"

      Now his ham will get hammered in that slammer!

      --
      Authority questions you. Return the favor.
    2. Re:Better headline by v1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was thinking he might be having problems with some unsolicited male in his outbox?

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  5. Re:It's Not Going To Make A Difference by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll save someone some time- actually, a lot of people a lot of time:

    ... (x) legislative ...

    ...

    (x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money

    ...

  6. Very disappointed by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Funny

    www.barbieslapp.com was not at all what I was hoping it would be about.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  7. new plugin for gmail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can I get a "sue" button on my gmail spam folder? I'd love to get $1000 for each of the of spam emails I get everyday.

  8. Re:It's Not Going To Make A Difference by tehcyder · · Score: 1, Funny

    Spam, on the other hand, causes people anguish

    And I used to think my 5 year old daughter was a drama queen.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  9. Re:It's Not Going To Make A Difference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You're one of "the slashdotters". I assume you'd be howling in outrage as well?