UK anti-spam organisation Spamhaus must pay a token $3, not $11.7m, in damages to a US marketing company after placing it on a spam blacklist.
The US Court of Appeals recommended the amount be reduced in a ruling on 2 September, after the case brought by e360insight foundered on inadmissable evidence, legal news site Outlaw.com said on Wednesday.
"By failing to comply with its basic discovery obligations, a party can snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory," said the ruling.
Spamhaus had been ordered to pay $11.7m by US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois after a mistake by Spamhaus' legal team, the organisation said in a statement on Monday. The damages were then reduced to $27,000, and finally to $3.
Twitter 
Linkedin 
ZDNet UK App 
Facebook 
RSS Feeds 
Newsletters 
Talkback
That reminds me of the case between artists Whistler and Turner, where one was ordered to pay compensation for being unkind about the other's paintings - but the damages awarded in that case was one farthing - the smallest unit of currency then in circulation!
A bit daft to mess up your own discovery requirements though.
Interesting article. Spamhaus has saved us a large amount of grief from having to deal with spam. They also continue to offer the service for free to small business. I highly recommend them as a good and very accurate RBL. Thankfully the fine was essentially dropped against them.
Spanhaus has provided its own online comment http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=670
The company involved E360 went out of business in 2008 and the suite is a zombie case, all the costs have been awarded in Spanhaus favour against the now long defunct company.