California attorney general Bill Lockyer claimed victory
in the state's first antispam lawsuit last week, after a court
ordered PW Marketing and its owners to pay a $2m (£1.2m) fine for
violating California laws against sending unsolicited commercial
e-mail.
Spam costs US businesses nearly $9bn (£5.3bn) a year in lost
productivity and screening expenses, and accounts for roughly 40%
of all e-mail, Lockyer said.
The case was won a month after California passed antispam
legislation prohibiting unsolicited e-mail advertisements sent to
or from any California residents. That statute takes effect from 1
January.
PW Marketing and its owners, Paul Willis and Claudia Griffin,
were charged under existing California antispam law for sending
millions of unsolicited e-mail advertisements promoting products
claiming to help recipients make money through sending spam which
hawked books, software and lists of e-mail addresses.
The company and its owners are also prohibited from sending any
unsolicited commercial e-mail, disguising their identity by sending
e-mail that appears to originate from an e-mail address that is not
their own and accessing and using computers and computer systems of
persons without their permission.
PW Marketing are barred for 10 years from owning, managing and
holding any economic interest in any company that advertises over
the internet without first providing written notice to the attorney
general.
Lockyer said that he would use the same "injunctive relief"
provisions in future enforcement actions.
The court victory enforces concern over spam among both
politicians and internet industry who see it as a modern-day
scourge which curbs the internet's legitimate business
potential.
Scarlett Pruitt writes for IDG News Service