Saturday, October 28, 2006

Australian Spammer Fined AU$5.5m

Now, here's something that makes me cry tears of joy! Wayne Robert Mansfield, a well known Australian spammer and his company Clarity 1 (also trading as Business Seminars Australia and Maverick Partnership) were taken to Federal Court by the ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) in March of 2006. The ACMA claimed, basically, that he contravened the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth) by sending over 56 million unsolicited commercial emails.

Well, finally this has been not only won by the ACMA, but the Federal Court Justice Robert Nicholson fined Clarity1 the sum of AU$4.5m and Wayne Robert Mansfield the sum of AU$1m. That's a total sum of AU$5.5m (approximately US$4.2m). In delivering his decision and the fine, the Judge stated that this spammer had caused "real loss or damage to the recipients ... in the form of direct financial costs associated with purchasing blocking and filtering software (and) other financial costs in the form of lost time and productivity ... ". Hooray for Justice Robert Nicholoson - it looks like we have Federal Court Judges who actually have an understanding of the Internet in Australia, and the ACMA was fortunate enough to have one appointed to their hearing.

At least people in Australia who are responsible for enforcing Laws on the Internet have a clue, unlike one particular US Senator Ted Stevens (R) who made what has come to be known as the most stupid ever claim about the Internet - that "it's, it's a series of tubes". Obviously the stupid senator knows nothing about the Internet, which is fine as he's only the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation who was investigating Net Neutrality at the time. Go "The Daily Show". :)

Oh, you have to watch this (DJ Ted Stevens)!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

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