Iowa ISP wins $10+ Billion in anti-spam lawsuit

[shocky123]

Iowa ISP wins $11.2 Billion dollar judgment against spammers

Humphrey Cheung
5 Jan 2006 19:53


Clinton (IA) - A small Iowa-based ISP has been awarded a huge $11.2 billion dollar judgment against a Florida spammer. CIS Internet Services in Clinton Iowa sued James McCalla of Florida for sending 280 million email messages into the CIS network. Since 1996, the CIS network was a conduit for McCalla's emails which contained spoofed return information.
The lawsuit initially had 300 defendants listed. In 2004, the ISP won another judgement against three other defendants. At that time, Judge Charles R. Wolle used the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act to punish three of the defendants for $1 billion dollars.



Iowa law section 714E says that spammers can be punished up to $10 per illegally distributed e-mail.


<http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/01/05/cisnetworks_spamlawsuit-11billionjudgement/>

[guiseppewv]

That is great. I wish this would happen to every spammer. I doubt this ruling will stick.

[OremuS]

That is great. I wish this would happen to every spammer. I doubt this ruling will stick.

The ruling might stick, but with an amount that high, the guy will just claim that he will never be able to pay it and will just go out of business. Had they only charged him for $5-10-20 mill, then it might have been something they would have been paid out on.

[bachviet]

Which spammers have $10+ billion dollars to pay? I don't think the ISP is going to collect that $$$.