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Facebook Inc., the world's most popular social-networking Web site, was awarded $711 million in damages against a spammer who gained access to users' accounts and sent phony messages.
Sanford Wallace sent unsolicited mass e-mails to users, tricking many of them into divulging their login information or redirecting them to Web sites that paid him for each visit, Facebook claimed.
"Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose said yesterday in a court order.
The company asked for more than $7 billion in damages in the case, filed in February. It doesn't expect to receive a "vast majority" of the award against Wallace, according to a blog posting on the company's Web site.
Facebook claimed that Wallace, who didn't appear in court to contest the suit, committed more than 14 million violations of the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing, or CAN-SPAM, Act.
In addition to the money judgment, Fogel issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Wallace from having access to Facebook.
Sanford Wallace sent unsolicited mass e-mails to users, tricking many of them into divulging their login information or redirecting them to Web sites that paid him for each visit, Facebook claimed.
"Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose said yesterday in a court order.
The company asked for more than $7 billion in damages in the case, filed in February. It doesn't expect to receive a "vast majority" of the award against Wallace, according to a blog posting on the company's Web site.
Facebook claimed that Wallace, who didn't appear in court to contest the suit, committed more than 14 million violations of the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing, or CAN-SPAM, Act.
In addition to the money judgment, Fogel issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Wallace from having access to Facebook.
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