 On Monday, PCWORLD.com reported that Scott Richter of Westminster, Colorado, was ordered to pay a hefty amount of fees to popular social networking website MySpace.com. MySpace charged Richter $6 million in damages and legal fees after he allegedly sent thousands of spam messages to MySpace users across the country. MySpace expressed its satisfaction with the ruling and with its own efforts against inappropriate behavior on the site: “This award reflects MySpace's continued momentum and holistic approach to ridding the site of spammers and phishers. We will continue to do our part in cleansing the Internet of this invasive onslaught of spam.” The fines, which were delivered Thursday, amount to $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees. This isn’t Richter’s first offense with MySpace. Back in January 2007, the lead social network sued Richter for suspicious behavior dating back to August 2006. During that time, MySpace members were allegedly spammed by thousands of messages sent by Richter. In fact, Richter’s history with spamming extends back through his family company history. His father, Steven Richter, stated, “We respect the decision of the arbitrator and we're not going to appeal it. We're going to pay the money he awarded.” Steven Richter is also the president and general counsel of Media Breakaway. Richter’s risky behavior stretches back further to 2005 when Optinrealbig.com, another company he worked for, shelled out $7 million “to settle similar charges” against Microsoft, PCWORLD.com claimed. Richter and his company, Media Breakaway expressed in a statement that they “were happy to have this matter behind them,” noting that the court-assigned arbitrator delivered a total sum fines 95% less than that of the amount MySpace percent less than the amount sought by MySpace. Back in May, MySpace won big against Spam Kings in what was referred to as the “the largest anti-spam award ever.” |
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