MySpace and The Globe.com Announce Settlement

May 31, 2007; 04:54 AM
MySpace and The Globe.com, Inc. today announced they reached a full settlement of MySpace’s claims against The Globe.com. As part of its effort to fight spam, MySpace filed a lawsuit against The Globe.com in June 2006 for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California Business & Professions Code Section 17529.5.

In its lawsuit, MySpace contended that The Globe.com violated California and federal law by sending almost 400,000 unsolicited email messages to MySpace users from 95 or more dummy accounts.

In February 2007, U.S. District Judge Klausner in Los Angeles held The Globe.com liable for violations of three separate provisions of the federal CAN-SPAM Act including:

• The prohibition against transmission of commercial emails containing false and misleading information, including header information;
• The prohibition against transmission of commercial emails which omit identifier, opt out, and physical address information; and
• The prohibition against using automated means such as scripts to generate commercial email to random recipients, which is an aggravated violation of the CAN-SPAM Act entitling MySpace to treble damages.

The court also found The Globe.com liable under California Business & Professions Code Section 17529.5 which prohibits email transmissions to or from California email addresses that contain falsified, misrepresented or forged header information or misleading subject lines. This is one of the first court rulings interpreting this provision of California law.

The Federal Court ultimately found The Globe.com liable for violations of MySpace’s Terms of Use, which prohibit unsolicited electronic communications and impose liquidated damages of $50 per email. The court ruled that MySpace was entitled to recover liquidated damages of $50 per piece of spam sent after March 17, 2006, entitling MySpace to $5.5 million in damages. This is the first court ruling in the United States enforcing a liquidated damages provision such as that found in MySpace’s Terms of Use.

"This ruling sets a new precedent enabling us to further protect our members from phishing and spam," said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace. "We hope it sends a strong message that MySpace will take aggressive steps to stop those who violate the law and damage our members’ experience.”

The terms of the settlement are confidential; however, the Consent Judgment and Stipulated Permanent Injunction entered by the Court on April 25, 2007 prohibits The Globe.com from, among other things, accessing or using MySpace for any commercial purpose or to send unsolicited emails in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

MySpace’s suit against The Globe.com is one of a series of actions MySpace has taken over the last two years to combat spam, phishing, and other misuse of the MySpace site. MySpace’s successes in this area include:

• Securing a favorable settlement in a federal suit against a distributor of an authorized bot that facilitated spamming on the site;
• Obtaining a settlement including injunctive relief and the payment of monetary damages in another federal suit against the sponsor of an affiliate program that was promoted by spammers;
• Filing suit against Sanford Wallace, for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California’s anti-spam statute;
• Assisting law enforcement in taking criminal action against Samy (aka "Samy Is My Hero") and the operators of "MySpace Plus" for alleged criminal activity related to spam, unauthorized bots, and/or phishing on the site; and
• Filing suit against Scott Richter, for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California’s anti-spam statute.

About MySpace.com

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, email, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the second ranked web domain in terms of page views(a), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to providing the highest quality member experience. MySpace will continue to innovate with new features that allow its members to express their creativity and share their lives, both online and off. MySpace’s international network includes localized community sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Latin America.

(a) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, April 2007. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.