mcavic - 2:18 pm on Sep 14, 2006 (gmt 0)

Gosh! I guess their stockholders can expect a special dividend this year :)

That works out to much less than $0.01 per share. It's an excellent result, though.

The consequence of getting caught one time must be disastrous enough that he won't take the chances of doing the crime in the first place, or that when he is caught, he won't do it again.

Exactly. Sadly, the deterrence doesn't always work. But it needs to be there. People who think spamming is okay need to be taught otherwise.

Since the beginning of last year, Microsoft has initiated 60 US lawsuits against alleged spammers. Half a dozen cases have been decided in Redmond's favour, with one dismissal. Microsoft settled with four defendants and pushed two others into bankruptcy. In all, Microsoft has received $54m in judgments from the US courts, the company said. [theregister.co.uk...]

Even better.