US court hits spammer with record fine

Hefty fine may be a deterrent but experts warn legislation alone will not stop spam

A spammer in the US has been ordered to pay an ISP a record $11.2bn (£6.4bn) for sending 280 million unsolicited emails to its customers.

Although James McCalla will be unable to pay the fine to CIS Internet Services, experts say it should act as a strong deterrent to others. But they warn that businesses need to do more to prevent spam.

‘It is good to have high-profile cases that will hopefully act as a deterrent, but we need to introduce more sophisticated technology to prevent the spread of spamming, rather than stricter legislation,’ said Martha Bennett, research director for Forrester Research’s European financial services group.

Spam is notoriously difficult to control. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, says stringent legislation in one country simply moves the problem to another.

‘The Can-Spam act in the US has been reasonably successful, but only in moving spammers out of the US,’ he said.

‘Legislation is not going to kill off the problem.’

The US introduced the Can-Spam Act at the beginning of 2004, and the British government made an EU Directive on Privacy and Telecommunication law in 2003.

But legislation in this country is generally seen as too lenient, and the US fine is in stark contrast to the £270 and £30 costs awarded in December to UK businessman Nigel Roberts, who won his case against marketing group Media Logistics for
sending him unsolicited emails.

‘The UK’s anti-spam legislation is fairly ineffectual. I doubt it would ever stop spammers altogether, as they are always operating in the shadows,’ said John Halton, technology lawyer at law firm Cripps Harries Hall.

Graham Titterington, principal analyst at Ovum, agrees. ‘Court cases are still only scratching the surface of the spamming problem. The main thrust to prevent spamming has to be a technological one,’ he said.

‘There are legal mechanisms in place to enforce judgements between Europe and the UK, but they have never been pursued.’