One Billion Dollars. In federal court. CIS Internet Services, an ISP with “about 5,000 subscribers” was awarded one billion dollars for damages inflicted by spammers.

The companies tagged: Cash Link Systems Inc. (Florida), AMP Dollar Savings Inc. (Arizona) and TEI Marketing Group Inc. (Florida).

Using this formula, it took only 150 days to tote up a billion dollars in charges:

(Spam per Day x Days Spammed x $10 x 3)

+ (Spam per Day x Days Spammed x $10)

Like all outrageous court rulings, this will likely net the plaintiffs zero for all their time and effort. The spammers will likely change names and locales… or off-shore ops will ooze in to replace them.

Sadly, the ISP would have better served his clientelle… and wallet… by investing in excellent Secure Email Boundary equipment.

See for yourself at QC Times.