MySpace Wins Another Lawsuit Against Another Famous Spam King

from the richter-goes-down-again dept

Mon, Jun 16th 2008 10:22pm — Mike Masnick

Just a month after MySpace won a huge fine against famed spam king Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, it's now won its lawsuit against another big name spam king: Scott Richter, who it sued a year and a half ago. Richter and his father (who runs the company) are claiming victory in that the fine is only $6 million -- when MySpace had been asking for much more. You may notice that I'm not linking to coverage of this story, since right now it appears that only the Associated Press is writing about it -- and, as you may have heard, the AP has decided it doesn't want bloggers linking to its stories. Fair enough. Update: Here's the News.com coverage.

Filed Under: scott richter, spam
Companies: myspace

17 Comments

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Ulle, 16 Jun 2008 @ 11:42pm

I really do not understand the reasoning behind APs actions, I would have thought that they would want the extra exposure that linking provides, after all they do want people to read their articles right, or am I missing something important here?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:20am

Free negative publicity with every blog newspost?

Amazing! You can't even put a price on that!
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illegalprelude, 17 Jun 2008 @ 2:07am

Money
I wish I had only $6 million
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Anonymous, 17 Jun 2008 @ 2:51am

Re: AP Business Model
The Associated Press essentially makes money selling RSS feeds. If they give it away, how can they stay in business?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 5:05am

Re: Re: AP Business Model
TBH, selling an RSS feed doesn't strike me as a sound business plan. Not as a core component anyways.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 5:41am

I didn't really care about this story but I clicked on the News.com link out of spite then browsed their site. Not bad, not bad at all. FU AP.
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Charles, 17 Jun 2008 @ 6:04am

Does it strike anyone else odd that 1.2million in legal fees seems to be the norm now-a-days.

How is the common man to afford 'justice'?
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leroy, 17 Jun 2008 @ 6:50am

spammers
Death Penalty for spammers (and scammers). No trial, just move right to execution. (kidding)
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Dan, 17 Jun 2008 @ 8:24am

Great Job!
On staying squeaky clean of AP!
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Tin Ear, 17 Jun 2008 @ 10:01am

The AP...
I used to work for a small town radio station and I was strongly warned not to let the print-outs from the AP wire out of the building. Not even for starting the wood stove. Big no-no.

It's good that spammers are getting their just desserts in court, too.
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Rich Kulawiec, 17 Jun 2008 @ 10:31am

This is meaningless
They'll never collect. The spam won't stop. This is a waste of the judicial system's resources.
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John (profile), 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:45pm

I agree
I agree with poster #11: sure, MySpace "wins", but will they collect? Probably not. If the spammer has a good lawyer (and I bet he does), they'll appeal the case for years and years without having to pay anything to MySpace.

And is a $6 million judgment really effective against spammers? I would bet that they could just save their money for a few months, pay the judgment, and write it off as a cost of spamming users on MySpace.
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Willton, 17 Jun 2008 @ 8:55pm

Re: I agree
I agree with poster #11: sure, MySpace "wins", but will they collect? Probably not. If the spammer has a good lawyer (and I bet he does), they'll appeal the case for years and years without having to pay anything to MySpace.

No, they won't appeal this decision. First, every day that the spammer delays payment is another day that interest accrues on the award, making it more expensive to pay the $6M. Second, this was a binding arbitration decision under the Federal Arbitration Act, which allows for expedited review. The FAA only allows for vacatur of an award in extremely limited circumstances, such as the arbitrator was fraudulent or exceeded his powers. Thus, if MySpace moves to confirm the award in federal court, they can get judgment rendered pretty swiftly.

Further, if the spammer refuses to pay, MySpace can order seizure of the spammer's assets, and if that doesn't work, MySpace can take a loss on its tax return, thereby alerting the IRS that the spammer may be committing tax evasion.
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Alex, 17 Jun 2008 @ 9:37pm

Poster #13
Richter has said he will pay and I bet he will because MySpace won $230 million against 2 of Richter's "affiliates" Wallace and Rines. (I wonder how much these two made for Richter if a Federal Judge determined they owe MySpace $230 million)

If Richter appealed, he would probably be order to pay more. He got lucky with arbitration.
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Michelle McCormack, 18 Jun 2008 @ 8:19am

Boycott
Congradulations on keeping up the AP boycott. I just love how mainstream media are burying themselves by clinging to old models and pretentions.
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Jeannette Basquin, 22 Jun 2008 @ 8:19am

"spam king" lawsuit
I don't see what the big deal is...have you ever tried a spamburger? they're pretty good!
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Jeannette Basquin, 22 Jun 2008 @ 8:21am

"spam king" lawsuit
I don't see what the big deal is...have you ever tried a spamburger? they're pretty good!
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