What does Facebook and MySpace have in common?  Both of these social network companies hate spammers big time.  This is why both social networks are proactively taking spammers to court.

Facebook
About a week ago, Facebook filed a lawsuit against Adam Guerbuez.  Facebook hired Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe for the case.  Guerbuez hijacked user accounts on Facebook and sent over 4 million messages in order to market products such as penis enlargement pills.

MySpace
Similarly, MySpace won a case against Sanford “Spamford” Wallace and his business partner.  The penalty was $230 million.  And this past June, MySpace also won a case against Scott Richter, CEO of Media Breakaway for sending out unsolicited ads.  Ian Ballon of GreenbergTraurig represented MySpace in both cases.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Who else doesn’t like spam?  The government.  This is why the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) law was passed.  According to the FTC, The CAN-SPAM Act “establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.”

Lawyers use the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the contractual agreement made when signing up for social networks to battle spammers.  John Dozier Jr. of Dozier Internet Law predicts that spam cases occurring on social networks will fade, but there will be an increase in cases for microblogging sites like Twitter.

Related Link:
1. Law.com