SUBSCRIBER COMPLAINTS PROMPT AOL TO SUE SPAMMERS
America Online filed five separate lawsuits this month against more than a dozen alleged spammers after receiving 8 million complaints from its subscribers.
AOL alleged that the spammers sent an estimated 1 billion e-mails ranging from steroids and mortgage offers to pornography. AOL 8.0 subscribers click a “Report Spam” button to lodge a complaint.
The lawsuits, filed April 11 and 14 in federal court in Virginia, are the first in reaction to “Report Spam” complaints. That makes the suits noteworthy, but a mere five suits are still just “a drop in the bucket,” opined law firm Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood, New York City, in its newsletter ADLAW. “It is highly unlikely that any number of suits will stop spamming. An effective solution belongs with the software developers, not with judges.”
AOL also issued hundreds of “cease and desist” letters to spammers, but the suits are AOL’s first since May 2001. New York City-based AOL has filed 20 suits against 100 alleged spammers, and recently won a $6.9 million judgment.
Separately, AOL Time Warner announced plans to sell its 50% stake in Comedy Central to media giant Viacom, which holds the other 50% in the cable network, for $1.23 billion. The sale will give debt-laden AOL Time Warner a little more breathing room as it considers selling or spinning off other assets, such as its book publishing and cable groups.
AOL Time Warner also announced some rare good news yesterday as it surpassed analyst estimates to post a first-quarter net profit of $396 million. Company revenue increased 6% to $10 billion while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 14% to $2 billion. The company’s movie and cable TV units held strong while the AOL online business performed surprisingly well, with EBITDA up 18% to $400 million despite a 4.4% drop in revenue to $2.2 billion, due to a 42% slump in ad sales.
