News Corp's MySpace said today it has sued an email marketing executive for an unspecified amount of damages, saying he and his company were behind millions of junk email, or spam, messages sent to its customers' accounts.
MySpace, the largest internet social network with more than 150 million
user profiles, filed the lawsuit against Scott Richter in US District Court in Los Angeles last Friday.
The company also requested a permanent injunction barring Richter, the chief executive of marketing firm Media Breakaway, from entering its network.
Richter and his associates "arranged for millions of spam 'bulletins"' to be sent from MySpace users' accounts without their knowledge by gaining access to them illegally, according to the lawsuit.
A representative for Richter was not immediately reachable for comment.
In 2005, Richter paid US$7 million ($10.2 million) in a post-judgment settlement of a lawsuit filed by Microsoft Corp and former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for sending email spam.
MySpace is taking tougher measures against unlawful use of its social network, from the illegal transfer of copyrighted music and entertainment to establishing measures to protect its large population of teenage viewers from adult predators. News Corp. bought the company in September 2005.
- REUTERS
