AOL wins damages in spam lawsuits

By Nancy Weil
IDG News Service, 12/22/98

America Online has won three more lawsuits in its campaign against companies that send unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, commonly called spam, to AOL subscribers.

AOL announced yesterday that it has won the suits, but did not detail the specific monetary awards granted by various courts. However, AOL did say that the amounts are "substantial." The ISP also said it has filed nine more lawsuits in California, New York, Florida, Iowa and its home state of Virginia.

The lawsuits were filed against companies that allegedly sent spam that is pornographic or promotes get-rich-quick schemes and spam software. AOL members have complained about the spam, the ISP said.

The lawsuits that were settled involved LCGM in Madison Heights, Mich., Prime Data Systems in Bowling Green, Ky. and IMS in Knoxville, Tenn.

AOL contended that LCGM was sending spam on behalf of pornographic Internet sites. A district court judge ruled that LCGM committed fraud by using methods and software that circumvented AOL's spam filtering technology. The judge applied Virginia and federal computer laws to the case, AOL said. AOL believes that this is the first time computer fraud laws have been applied to a spam lawsuit.

In both the LCGM lawsuit and the Prime Data Systems lawsuit a district court judge in Virginia ruled that the companies violated AOL's trademark rights.

The district court also found that IMS violated federal trademark laws by forging AOL's domain name address of "AOL.com." As a result, AOL was awarded triple punitive damages, AOL said.

The new flurry of lawsuits are against Power Promo and Forrest Dayton in Marietta, Ga.; GreatDeals.Net in Reston, Va.; Virtual Girlfriend Spammer in Sunland and Tujunga, Calif.; Michael Persaud in San Diego, Calif.; USA Home Employment in Studio City, Calif.; National Health Care Discounts Inc. in Sioux City, Iowa; Global Marketing solutions Inc. in Orange County, Fla.; First Class Advertising in Volusia and Orange counties, Fla. and The Christian Brothers in Brooklyn, N. Y.