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'You've got grief!'
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December 21, 1998: 2:29 p.m. ET
AOL wins three lawsuits and files nine more against spammers and others
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - America Online Inc. dropped a net on spammers Monday, filing nine lawsuits in five states and announcing victory in three other junk e-mail cases.
One of the courthouse wins features a ground-breaking ruling that applied federal and state computer fraud statutes, recognizing that these laws apply to the transmission of falsified e-mail.
AOL (AOL), the world's largest online service provider, said this ruling is "a new weapon in the fight against spam."
The nine new cases, filed Monday in California, New York, Iowa, Florida and Virginia, target porn spammers, get-rich-quick schemers and spammer software peddlers.
"We want spammers everywhere to know that we will find you and come after you in court," Randall Boe, AOL's associate general counsel, said in a statement.
Spam, or online junk mail, has spawned a cottage industry that has infuriated many time-conscious Internet surfers and has nearly crippled big online services like America Online by bloating their servers and chewing up their bandwidths.
Among those charged in the new round of complaints are the "Virtual Girlfriend" in California for allegedly defrauding consumers who try to purchase the advertised software package; National Health Care Discounts Inc. of Sioux City, Iowa, for allegedly using spammers to generate sales leads by deluging AOL members with messages promoting NHCD's health insurance products; and the Christian Brothers of Brooklyn, N.Y., for allegedly using junk e-mail to advertise "a miracle cancer cure" that are actually apricot seeds. This company also allegedly generated junk e-mail using the "AOL.com" address.
Three Court Victories
AOL said it won three lawsuits against junk e-mailers located in Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. The company declined to name the amounts of the settlements. All of these cases were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The online provider said the case against LCGM Inc. of Madison Heights, Mich., a pornographic web site spammer, featured a ruling that applied both the State of Virginia's and the federal government's computer fraud laws.
AOL said this ruling provides it and other Internet service providers with a new weapon to fight against spam.
LCGM was ordered to pay AOL damages and costs, including attorney's fees, for sending millions of pieces of junk e-mail to AOL members.
Prime Data Systems and its principal operator, Vernon Hale, were also ordered to pay damages to AOL for the costs of handling millions of pieces of junk e-mail. The court also noted that the "malicious" nature of the defendant's conduct warranted punitive damages triple the amount of actual damages.
In the IMS case, the court ruled against the company, its principal, Joe Melle and two others: Brian Robbins and Neil Byron. The court found each liable for actual damages and imposed triple punitive damages.
"These legal victories underscore the court's recognition that junk e-mail damages both our members and AOL," Boe said. "They also deliver a strong statement: AOL will not tolerate junk e-mail on its network and respond to our members' complaints and protect their online experience."
AOL (AOL) was up 11-1/8 at 115-3/8 in early afternoon trading.
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