Big win for California spam law

Big news from California:

Court Holds Recipients of Unlawful “Spam” Are Entitled to $1,000 Per Email

Last week, Superior Court judge Marie Weiner ruled that Dan Balsam was entitled to $7000 damages plus attorneys' fees and costs from Trancos Inc., of Redwood City.

This is huge news for two reasons: First, it's the first time an anti-spam case has been won by an individual instead of a major ISP.

But more importantly, the judge has ruled that the CAN-SPAM act does not pre-empt the California anti-spam law, California Business & Professions Code § 17529.5.

The judge ruled that the use of generic words in the From: line such as "Paid Survey" and "Your Business" were deceptive, along with their use of multiple domain names, the use of unregistered fictitious business names, and a box at the UPS store were intentionally misleading.

Full details at http://www.DanHatesSpam.com/trancos.html (pdf).

More coverage can be found at the San Francisco Chronicle: SF lawyer awarded $7,000 from email spammer, and SlashDot: 1st Trial Under California Spam Law Slams Spammer.