Spam Crime Loss Not Measured by Defendant’s Gain–US v. Kilbride

By Eric Goldman US v. Kilbride, 2007 WL 2774487 (D. Ariz. Sept. 21, 2007) Kilbride and his co-defendants are porn spammers who have been convicted of obscenity charges and criminal violations of CAN-SPAM. They face very long jail sentences. Their…

2007 Cyberspace Law Syllabus

By Eric Goldman I’ve posted my 2007 Cyberlaw syllabus. Unlike the past few years, which were a little slow cyberlaw-wise, the past 12 months saw a lot of important developments. Let me recap some of changes I made to my…

CAN-SPAM Defendant Awarded $111k in Fees/Costs–Gordon v. Virtumundo

By Eric Goldman Gordon v. Virtumundo, 06-0204-JCC (W.D. Wash. Aug. 1, 2007) I believe this ruling represents the first time that a CAN-SPAM plaintiff has been ordered to pay attorneys’ fees and costs to a defendant. As a result, it’s…

July 2007 Quick Links, Part II

By Eric Goldman Virtual Worlds * After a remarkable run as media darlings, Second Life is now experiencing some of the inevitable backlash. Case in point: Wired’s “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.” In this…

June 2007 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Email * Spam cases are coming at a regular clip, and it’s tricky divining the latest state of the law. Two recent cases that caught my attention: – US v. Impulse Media Group, 2007 WL 1725560 (W.D….

May 2007 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Spam * MySpace Inc. v. The Globe.com Inc., No. CV 06-3391 RGK (C.D. Cal. Feb. 27, 2007). This case has some personal interest because theglobe.com was one of my flagship clients before I left the law firm…

Pew 2007 Spam Survey

Pew has updated its periodic survey on user attitudes towards spam. Its conclusion: Spam continues to plague the internet as more Americans than ever say they are getting more spam than in the past. But while American internet users report…

Facebook’s Lawsuit Against Competitive Email Harvesting Continues–Facebook v. ConnectU

By Eric Goldman Facebook, Inc. v. ConnectU LLC, 2007 WL 1514783 (N.D. Cal. May 21, 2007) A universal truth of the digital era: a website displaying user email addresses will be targeted by email harvesters sweeping up those email addresses…

Utah’s “Don’t Email the Kids” Registry a “Financial Failure”

By Eric Goldman A couple of years ago, Utah and Michigan adopted laws creating “don’t email the kids” registries (called the “Child Protection Registry”–see Utah’s and Michigan’s). These laws allow parents to register email addresses held by kids and requires…

April 2007 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman * Rebecca blogs on CollegeNET, Inc. v. XAP Corp., 2007 WL 927946 (D. Or. March 26, 2007), where a jury awarded $4.5M in damages under 43(a) because the defendant had a privacy policy saying it wouldn’t disclose…