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Kat Tanaka Okopnik [kat at linuxgazette.net]
Pardon the hedge latin. Thought TAGistas might be interested in this news item:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080104/023101.shtml
Spammer Alan Ralsky Finally Indicted
[...] The charges include: "conspiracy, fraud in connection with electronic mail, computer fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud." That's because Ralsky wasn't just spamming products for sale, he was using a botnet to run a pump-and-dump scam on Chinese penny stocks. It's unclear why it took over two years for the indictment to finally show up, but there are likely to be quite a few folks in the anti-spam community who are thrilled that something finally happened to Ralsky.
-- Kat Tanaka Okopnik Linux Gazette Mailbag Editor kat@linuxgazette.net
Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
Quoting Kat Tanaka Okopnik (kat@linuxgazette.net):
> Pardon the hedge latin. Thought TAGistas might be interested in this > news item: > > http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080104/023101.shtml > > Spammer Alan Ralsky Finally Indicted
And, on the civil-law side of the aisle, the great Spamford!
May 14, 2008 SWallace, our HUGE judgment could make your life STAY HARD FOREVER
Don't look for it to show up on the bottom line, but MySpace has won a $234 million default judgment against notorious "Spam King" Sanford Wallace and his associate (Spam Prince?) Walter Rines for bombarding its members with more than 730,000 pieces of junk mail, often disguised as a note from a friend. The award is believed to be the largest anti-spam judgment ever rendered, but it might as well have been $234 bazillion for all the good it will do MySpace. The reason it was a default judgment is that Wallace and Rines are nowhere to be found, and when they are, the News Corp. social site will have to get in line with the victors in previous cases. [...]