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.

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Some or all provisions of some individual state laws may be preempted by the United States federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, including provisions regarding a private right of action.  Although not part of any platforms with the upcoming United States election, how does each of the presidential candidates’ individual state fare with spam legislation? Only the highlights of the state spam laws are presented.

Barrack Obama - Illinois
Running mate for Vice President: Joe Biden
(815 ILCS 511/10)
Sec. 10. Unsolicited or misleading electronic mail; prohibition.
(a) No individual or entity may initiate or cause to be initiated an unsolicited electronic mail advertisement if the electronic mail advertisement (i) uses a third party’s Internet domain name without permission of the third party, or otherwise misrepresents any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path of an electronic mail advertisement or (ii) contains false or misleading information in the subject line.

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