AOL to Give Away Spammer's Porsche 140
A user writes "CNN is reporting that AOL is giving away a spammer's Porsche. As part of a settlement with a spammer, AOL took the spammer's Porsche Boxster S, and they're running a sweepstakes (already ended) to give the car away."
Late! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Late! (Score:5, Funny)
but yeah.. this is *exactly* how to deal with spammers.. they've been offering us penis extentions for the last decade.. now its time to take theirs away!!
Would you want it early? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Late! (Score:5, Informative)
Say it isn't so! (Score:2)
Double my parents chances.
Re:Late! (Score:2)
THE AOL PR FORCE IS STRONG LUKE (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:THE AOL PR FORCE IS STRONG LUKE (Score:1)
Re:Late! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Late! (Score:2, Funny)
Ummm, what kind of car does Cowboy Neal drive??
Raffle, anybody?
Re:Late! (Score:1)
Re:Late! (Score:1)
Re:Late! (Score:1)
Re:Late! (Score:1)
Surely you mean "What kind of horse does he ride?"
... and don't call me Shirley!
The duke of dupes! (Score:4, Funny)
This was in the mainstream media, even. And Slashdot.
Re:The duke of dupes! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The duke of dupes! (Score:1)
I mean c'mon, it's not like the latest kernel update is major world news - although god help me, one day I hope it is
Re:The duke of dupes! (Score:2, Funny)
Fascinating!! (Score:4, Funny)
Remove this item (Score:1, Insightful)
the useless posts.
Garth! (Score:1, Offtopic)
Old article - but it is an update (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Old article - but it is an update (Score:3, Insightful)
Bio-Hazard (Score:4, Funny)
Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:4, Interesting)
mark my words
Slashdotters are laughing now, but just wait until the RIAA/MPAA take a cue from AOL and start liquidating pirates assets...
I'd continue the cutting & pasting of +5 mods, but I'm far too lazy. Thanks Claws Of Doom and WormholeFiend for me stealing the first +5 comments.
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:2, Funny)
What good will basements full of used CD-Rs do anyone?
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:2)
Will that include the pirates' MP3 and DivX files? They're, after all, Stolen Property(TM) according to them.
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:2)
And I shouldn't have been rated "interesting". Probably "smart-ass" would be better.
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:3, Interesting)
The sooner people remember this small fact, the sooner they can stop worrying about their parents' basement.
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:2, Insightful)
That will be a scary day, incidentally. They own a big chunk of 'land' in cyberspace already...
Re:Speaking of March 30th, let me just say... (Score:1)
well actually, they indirectly are...
The Ultimate Spam (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:2, Funny)
The rest rely on web porn.
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:2)
rj
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:2)
No, you hear about "aging ungracefully". Besides, middle-aged women aren't usually as ostentatious in their sudden lifestyle changes; I don't know many lawyer's wives who decided to become biker chicks. Similarly, why do you think Demi-Ashton was such a big deal? Guys her age do the same thing (or try to, at least) all the time.
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:2, Funny)
It's difficult being a male looking for a new car these days.
-If you purchase a large sedan, you're old.
-If you purchase a small sedan, you're gay.
-If you purchase a minivan, you're whipped.
-If you purchase either a sports car, SUV, or large pickup truck, you have a small penis.
What does that leave? A Schwinn?
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:1)
Purchase a medium-size sports sedan, such as the Cadillac CTS or the forthcoming Cadillac STS.
Re:The Ultimate Spam (Score:1)
Unusual punishment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe he got a better deal by giving away his car rather than an equivalent amount in money - but how'd they reach the settlement amount? Had the spammer's actions caused enough damage to AOL to justify the $1million settlement claim? My guess would be that the spammer's actions cost them bandwidth and diskspace - but are they justified in charging him the amount just because their users didn't delete the junk soon enough or their filters are lame?
Not I'm justifying spam or spammers...but if they reach an out of court settlement for a million dollars, on the grounds that they won't pursue a lawsuit against him - it sounds an awful lot like extortion to me. I would like to see the damages of $1million justified in public - otherwise every crook company (we have plenty of them - RIAA/SCO/etc) could go around threatening people with lawsuits (which the individuals couldn't afford) and demand out-of-court settlements and the people being sued would have no choice but to pay up unless they had resources to pursue their case in court.
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:1)
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:2)
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:2)
Compensatory damages are intended to compensate for the losses incurred by the plaintiff.
Punitive damages are intended to punish.
If there were only compensatory damages then there would not be any disincentive to spammers, they'd compensate the plaintiff and be off and to it again because the net earnings are still pretty good.
It is possible that the punitive damages were excessive, I really don't know, but I thought this g
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:5, Funny)
1) File lawsuit against spammer.
2) File motion to freeze spammers assets. Make case that spammer has shown willingness to be sneaky, underhanded, pushing fraudulent products, etc and that its necessary to ensure spammer has viable assets should plaintiff win.
3) Win case. Spammer's business assets are near zero except for car, which couldn't be sold due to freeze. Everything else is leased/rented or of zero salable value. AOL agrees to take car before spammer decides to park it on street with keys in ignition to spite AOL.
4) Spammer goes to farm field owned under another corporate umbrella, digs up cash vacuum sealed in plastic sacks stuffed in PVC pipes. Pays attorney and re-starts spamming business.
5) AOL sells car, claims "victory" in war on spam.
Unusual? Bah! (Score:2, Funny)
You obviously don't watch enough late-nite TV. Don't you know that you can buy cars and homes siezed from similar low-lifes by the FBI, IRS, repo men and other organizations? Auctions are being held right now near you! You can also obtain financing for your low-life auto auction purchase!
Re:Unusual? Bah! (Score:2)
But you're right, I don't watch enough trashy late-night TV...I consider my time too valuable to be wasted watching the trash that Fox/etc feed you day after night.
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:2)
And how much money do you think it costs to hire a team of programmers to write good filtering software that's capable of handling AOL's volume of spam? A million bucks sounds not too unreasonable to me...
Re:Unusual punishment? (Score:3, Interesting)
Ask any plaintiff's attorney. If the case goes to trial, the odds are very much against the plaintiff winning.
The objective of the plaintiff's attorney is thus not to win at trial but to convince the defendant that pushing the case to trial is not worth it and settle.
More often than not, the defendant in this case is a corporation. Cf. the breast implant class actions of ten years ago. Dow Corning etc. would have almost certainly won at trial (the evidence demonstrating liability was and is virtually
They already did this... (Score:2)
The RIAA have already done this will people using P2P programs to share music. When you are being faced with $500,000 fines for every song on your computer...cutting a deal for $2500 doesn't look
Isn't it ironic, dont'cha think (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah it's a dupe but.... (Score:3, Funny)
SQWEAL for the cowboy!!!!!
The "Fortune" box (Score:2)
Porsche: there simply is no substitute. -- Risky Business
ahhhhhhhhh.... I'm being spammed by slashdot!!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Nevermind...
Here's The Downside... (Score:4, Funny)
"Hi everybody, I'm Robin Leach, and I'm here today looking at the gorgeous 20 million dollar home of [insert spammers name here]!! It's a fabulous castle bought with all that email money, because spamming REALLY DOES WORK!!! Of course, he had the cheapest mortgage on the planet! Boy, he's more loaded than half of Hollywood, and it's like he didn't even work for it! With spam, he seems to MAKE MONEY OVERNIGHT!!! While you stupid peasants are out there slaving away, he's clicking "Send Now" and watching his fabulous dragon's mound of gold coins pile ever higher! He's so smart, he doesn't even need a spellchecker! He has a stable of Porsches and a stable of lovely ladies! And that huge penis of his is a favorite around town! He has no problems meeting ladies because Spamming REALLY DOES WORK!!" He's living the American Dream, and I'm just poor fat old Robin Leach!!!
Dude. (Score:1, Funny)
Deja Vu.
Re:Dude. (Score:1)
"How much like it? Was it the same story?"
Why the Porsche you say? (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow! (Score:1)
valid usernames (Score:4, Funny)
aaah, one million valid email addresses for phase two! WARRRAARARRAGAAARRAAGG!!
Great idea! (Score:5, Funny)
2. Get people to sign up; collect email addresses
3. Sell email addresses
4. Profit!
Hang on a minute (Score:1)
Re:Hang on a minute (Score:1, Insightful)
Junk mail isn't illegal. Spam is. Junk faxes. Junk emails. Things where the spammers dont pay for the medium - where YOU pay for the medium - those're the ones that're just plain wrong.
Don't blur that line or you can have it used against you. Next thing you know, people think it's all the same and junk'll come with no recourse.
Luck (Score:1)
yarr (Score:1)
Settlement my ass (Score:1)
Let's see here: the Bush gov't has spent bazillions to seek out and destroy Bin Laden/Saddam etc. We catch this one little spammer prick that we'd just love to have drawn and quartered on national TV, and yet they just say "Give us your shiny red car" and let him loose. And now make a medi
Re:Repost? (Score:1)
Re:I would rather (Score:3, Funny)
I am not a doctor, so I would probably botch it badly.
Re:I would rather (Score:4, Funny)
You're not a doctor, so
Why for free? (Score:1)
1.) Find spammer.
2.) Castrate him.
3.) Add insult to injury: make him pay for it.
4.) Profit.
It would be fitting because he has been making us pay for his abusiveness.
Re:I would rather (Score:2, Funny)
How about greeting him with a "Do you feel lucky, punk ?" when he opens the door ?
~The Essence of Slashdot~ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:~The Essence of Slashdot~ (Score:1, Funny)
Have a nice day. (Score:1)
A little vague... (Score:1)
Re:A little vague... (Score:2)
Sounds like even more of a deluded idealogue dirtbag to me. In any event, his dirty little special interest programmes have no business on the default fees list of multiple public university. I can imagine how ecstatic an idealogical freak like yourself would feel if Ann Coulter managed to get some authoritarian nationalist agenda put on the roster of initial fees that a student "can opt out of". Nader, that stinki
Re:A little vague... (Score:2)
The do if the student goverment so decides it (which they have).
LOL! That is just about the stupidest rationalisation of anything I have seen this month thus far! Let's put aside the notion that protecting idiots from themselves via "consumer advocacy" lobbying interests in government is, shall we say, thick-headed.
Now, suppose Fred Phelps [godhatesfags.com] manages to get his filthy special interest agenda funded in a similar manner
Re:I would rather (Score:3, Funny)
So anyway, friend, if you _do_ have problems similar to the above, or know anyone that does, there's this stuff I've heard about that i'm sure you'd be interested in: Ci@lis. It's great. Did wonders for me. Like vi@gr4 but better! Lasts all weekend! Buy one now! It's the best! It works wonders. Gives you a surging er3c71.on, healthier physique, feeds the pets, buys dinner, and frees you from SP4.M! Click on the link
Are you on crack? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Here's where we talked about it already (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Did the spammer Voilate the law? (Score:1)
Re:Did the spammer Voilate the law? (Score:2)
I'll await your retort