:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 10.26.2003 ::
:: A report from the spam wars ::
Firm Fined $2M in Calif. Anti-Spam Case
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A company accused of sending unsolicited bulk e-mail was fined $2 million by a judge Friday, the first such ruling under California's anti-spam law.
PW Marketing LLC and its owners, Paul Willis and Claudia Griffin, were also banned from owning, managing, or holding an economic interest in any company that advertises over the Internet without first notifying the attorney general. The injunction will remain in place for 10 years.
The company, which does not have a Web site and has been accused of operating under fictitious names, has sent millions of illegal, unsolicited e-mails advertising tools for spamming, including $39 how-to books and lists of e-mail addresses of California residents.
Prosecutors said PW Marketing violated the 1998 anti-spam law by sending unsolicited e-mail without a toll-free number for recipients to call to stop additional mailings. Its missives did not include a valid return address or the "ADV:" label to mark advertisements, which the state requires.
State attorneys also claimed the owners illegally tapped into computer users' network connections so the company could send e-mail that couldn't be traced back to its source.
posted by me
:: 3:51:00 PM [+] ::
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