Marketer Ordered to Pay US$ 6 Million for Spamming MySpace Users

A court-appointed arbitrator in California has ordered Media Breakaway LLC to pay US $6 million to MySpace for sending spam e-mail to MySpace members. MySpace alleged that Media Breakaway had stolen the login information of some MySpace accounts and used those MySpace accounts to distribute some of its spam messages to other MySpace users. However, Media Breakaway alleged that independent contractors were the ones responsible for stealing the account information of MySpace users and other improper actions. Scott Richter, the head of Media Breakaway, has been involved in other spam-related legal disputes. In 2005 Mr. Richter paid US$7 million to settle a spam lawsuit with Microsoft, and in 2004 he paid US$ 50,000 the State of New York. The US$6 million award in this case is much less than the US$230 million verdict that MySpace was recently awarded in US District Court against two other online marketers, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines. Although Canada has not enacted specific anti-spam legislation, Bill S-235, An Act concerning unsolicited commercial electronic messages, (an anti-spam bill) has progressed to second reading in the Canadian Senate. If enacted, Bill S-235 would establish requirements for commercial electronic messages, and prohibit address harvesting and phishing. Under the Bill, commercial electronic messages would be required to clearly identify the sender, contain accurate subject lines, include information that would allow the recipient to contact the sender, and contain an "unsubscribe" function so that recipients may elect not to receive messages in the future. Bill S-235 would also prohibit the sending of commercial electronic messages to anyone who had not previously consented to receiving them. However, it would provide a range of exemptions including message from political parties and charities. For more information on the MySpace decision, see: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spam17-2008jun17,0,2061332.story For more information on Bill S-235, see: http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/ygoldstein/default.asp?id=1; and http://tinyurl.com/5ddctq For the full text of Bill S-235, visit: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/content/Senate/Bills/392/public/pdf/s-235_1.pdf Summary by: Andrei Edwards