THAT’S WITH A ‘B’

An Iowa internet service provider has won a rather sizeable judgement against the sort of punchbowl-defecators who think the world is just waiting to hear about their bad ideas:

A federal judge has awarded an Internet service provider more than $1 billion in what is believed to be the largest judgment ever against spammers.

Robert Kramer, whose company provides e-mail service for about 5,000 subscribers in eastern Iowa, filed suit against 300 spammers after his inbound mail servers received up to 10 million spam e-mails a day in 2000, according to court documents.

[. . .]

MP Dollar Savings Inc. of Mesa, Ariz., was ordered to pay $720 million, and Cash Link Systems Inc. of Miami was ordered to pay $360 million. The third company, Florida-based TEI Marketing Group, was ordered to pay $140,000.

The article goes on to note that the plaintiff is unlikely ever to collect the full $1 billion, except with the help of the relatives of a dead Nigerian.