EarthLink Continues Spam Legal Battle

EarthLink continued its legal battle against spammers on Friday, announcing that evidence it provided federal authorities had led to a one-year prison sentence for one spammer, and that it had won a multi-million dollar judgment in another case.

The ISP provided evidence in the suit against Peter Moshou, known as the "Timeshare Spammer." EarthLink claimed that in 2004 and 2005, Moshou sent millions of e-mails seeking personal information by offering brokerage services for timeshare owners.

Among the techniques Moshou allegedly used were spoofing the origin of e-mails, using deceptive subject lines, failing to identify the sender and failing to provide an electronic unsubscribe option, among other violations.

Moshou will serve one year in federal prison and has been ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution for CAN-SPAM act violations.

In a separate case, EarthLink won a $15.4 million judgment against Craig Brockwell and his company BC Alliance. A court granted the ISP's request to have Brockwell and BC pay monetary damages, as well as barring it from spamming any Internet user, regardless of ISP.

"Obtaining a judgment against an individual like Brockwell and working with law enforcement to provide evidence in criminal prosecutions benefits all Internet users," Earthlink assistant general counsel Larry Slovensky said in prepared remarks.

Earthlink has an impressive record of successfully suing individuals and companies for sending spam. Since 1996, the company has sued more than 100 spammers, winning $65 million in judgments.