Facebook won its case against a spammer, Adam Guerbuez and his company, Atlantis Blue Capital, for violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. The courts awarded Facebook an incredible $873 million in damages, the largest award under the Act to date. According to reports, his business involved phishing Facebook user logins, and then using other peoples’ accounts to send spam to other Facebook users, selling various pharmaceuticals and male enhancement drugs. Guerbuez never showed up for his hearing.

It is of course, a symbolic gesture. Facebook is not likely to get a dime from Mr. Guerbuez. Although I’m sure he’s made some money from his spam business, I doubt it’s anywhere near $873 million. And by now, if he’s smart, both he and his money are far outside of United States jurisdiction. Besides the monetary judgment, he also received an injunction preventing him from using Facebook in the future. This too, is a symbolic gesture, and one that would be impossible to enforce.

Max Kelly, Facebook’s Director of Security, entered in his blog yesterday a bit of insight into what transpired, but even Facebook is realistic about its prospects of collecting anything. According to Kelly, “It’s unlikely that Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital could ever honor the judgment rendered against them (though we will certainly collect everything we can).” Kelly remains “confident that this award represents a powerful deterrent to anyone and everyone who would seek to abuse Facebook and its users.” As for me, I think, not so much.

That is the problem with CAN-SPAM legislation, which although well-meaning, doesn’t accomplish its intended purpose. Legislation and the prospect of heavy fines and jail time should intimidate would-be criminals, and hopefully prevent them from perpetrating their crimes out of fear of consequences. But the Internet world transcends jurisdictional borders, and so one country’s anti-spam legislation will be largely ineffective unless all other countries join in. Although I certainly support CAN-SPAM and encourage other countries to enact similar legislation, the real prevention is going to be in technological prevention, education, and to a lesser degree, shutting down ISPs that cater to spammers, which recently happened.