June 16th, 2008
MySpace plays more spam Whac-a-Mole; Wins $6 million settlement
MySpace has won a $6 million spam settlement against an affiliate network called Media Breakaway and its CEO Scott Richter.
The MySpace victory comes a month after it won a $230 million settlement against well-known spammers Stanford Wallace and Walter Rines. In its latest victory, MySpace won an arbitration hearing where it was awarded $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorneys fees and costs. MySpace alleged Media Breakaway violated the CAN SPAM Act among other statutes. Media Breakaway, officially a “performance-based marketing solutions” company, denied the claims.
George H. King, a judge in the Central District of California, ruled for MySpace in arbitration. The final ruling (PDF download) hinged on what was acceptable commercial use of MySpace (Techmeme).
The official line from MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam:
“MySpace has zero tolerance for illegal activity on our site and is committed to bringing to justice those who try to harm our members. Recently, MySpace won a major victory against Scott Richter and Media Breakaway under the Federal CAN SPAM Act. This award reflects MySpace’s continued momentum and holistic approach to ridding the site of spammers and phishers through technological innovation, education, partnerships and enforcement. We will continue to do our part in cleansing the Internet of this invasive onslaught of spam.”
The reality: MySpace is playing a neverending game of spam Whac-a-Mole. What’s MySpace and other sites dealing with? Check this excerpt from the complaint:
It doesn’t sound like Media Breakaway is actually going to repent. The spam battle continues…
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Subscribe to Between the Lines via Email alerts or RSS.
