Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, part of a group EarthLink called the Alabama Spammers after their use of phone lines in Birmingham, Alabama, have agreed to the settlement.
The two men have agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to EarthLink, but do not admit or deny guilt, according to EarthLink assistant general counsel Larry Slovensky.
We’ve reached an agreement with them for them not to send unsolicited commercial emails, Slovensky said. It’s a fairly broad settlement.
The suit was filed in August 2003, naming John Does as defendants. In February 2004, the company uncovered the identity of 16 individuals using subpoenas.
There were four members of the SpamHaus.org’s Register of Known Spam Operations, ROKSO, among them. DeCrescenzo, settling now, was one of them.
Slovensky said EarthLink is continuing to sue the remaining defendants.
The suits were filed under fraud law not related to spam specifically. The US CAN-SPAM Act was not in effect at the time the alleged actions occurred.
In at least one previous case, that of Howard Carmack, a successful EarthLink civil lawsuit led to the successful criminal prosecution of a spammer.
