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December 6, 2005

No chain gang for Florida spam duo

A judge has ruled against two Florida spammers who called themselves the Dotcomboiz.

Scott J. Filary, 25, and Donald E. Townsend, 34, were sued by the Florida attorney general last April. At the time, AG Charlie Crist said the spammers faced a penalty of $24M for violating Florida's 2004 spam law.

Under the judgment, however, the two men will get off by paying $50,000 to cover the cost of the state's investigation.

That much smaller figure was apparently arrived at based on financial statements provided by the defendants last August. They'll be subject to a $1.1M fine if they fudged the records, or if they break the terms of the permanent injunction, which prohibits them from further violations of the Florida spam law.

Crist, who is running to be Florida's republican nominee for governor, evidently earned the nickname "chain gang Charlie" for his efforts to cultivate a tough-on-crime image.

Posted by brian at December 6, 2005 11:09 PM