Florida spammer hit with $11.2B judgment

Computerworld - Robert Kramer, the owner and operator of CIS Internet Services in Clinton, Iowa, has won an $11.2 billion judgment against a Miami-based spammer who sent millions of illegal e-mails advertising mortgage and debt-consolidation services, according to court documents.
The judgment, issued on Dec. 23, comes nearly two years after Kramer filed his lawsuit against James McCalla and other alleged spammers in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. As part of the same lawsuit, Kramer earlier won a $1 billion judgment against three other spammers (see "Judge awards ISP $1 billion in spam damages").
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Wolle granted CIS's requests for monetary damages and injunctive relief, a ruling that prevents McCalla from illegally spamming any Internet user -- regardless of the user's Internet service provider, Kramer said in an e-mail statement to Computerworld. McCalla is also prohibited from accessing the Internet for a period of three years, Kramer said.
McCalla could not be reached for comment.
In the lawsuit, Kramer established that McCalla sent more than 280 million illegal spam e-mail messages into CIS's computer network in 2003. In testimony for a November damages hearing, Kramer said that -- based on mail server log entries -- CIS could show the actual transmission of at least 8 million illegal e-mail messages. Under the Iowa statute in effect at the time the spam was sent, Kramer was entitled to $10 per illegal e-mail, he said.
"I'm pleased with Judge Wolle's ruling," Kramer said. "It's a victory for every e-mail user and every responsible ISP. It's proof our courts and Congress are committed to protecting the public," Kramer said in the statement. "E-mail is an innovation like atomic energy or the automobile. In the beginning, the opportunity for misuse is obvious. For e-mail, that's now changed. This ruling sets a new standard. Gross abusers of e-mail risk exposure to public ridicule as well as the economic death penalty."
In a telephone interview, Kramer said he just gave the go-ahead to collections attorneys in Florida to track down McCalla and find his assets.
"I don't care if he's moved out of the state or wherever he's gone, we're going to find him and locate his assets, and we're going to make him hurt like he made me hurt and like he undoubtedly made other ISPs hurt during his reign as a spamming nuisance," Kramer said.

"We never intended to go after these spammers just to hold a judgment in our hands and wave up a big number in