Charities like Second Harvest and the Darfur Stove Project can thank e-mail spam for financing their operations. Or, more appropriately, they can thank Joe Wagner, a graduate student at Stanford University who has sued spam merchants and made sure any awards or settlements are donated to charitable causes.
This summer Mr. Wagner and David Cannon, another graduate student at Stanford, filed suit in California small-claims court against a number of companies accused of firing off unsolicited e-mail messages. According to The Stanford Daily, the student plaintiffs made the spammers an offer: Give the money to charity, and we’ll dismiss the charges. Most of the companies agreed, but four businesses — Valueclick, WorldAvenue, SubscriberBASE, and Azoogle — decided to settle the cases in court.
A claims-court judge ruled that those companies must all pay damages, which would mean more money for Mr. Wagner’s and Mr. Cannon’s charities of choice. But the businesses have appealed the decision, and it may take a few weeks before the new verdict comes in. —Brock Read
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