AOL v. LCGM, Inc. et al.

On January 22, 1998, AOL filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against two Michigan companies, LCGM, Inc. and Web Promo, responsible for the transmission of thousands of unsolicited messages to AOL members that advertised the companies' pornographic sites on the World Wide Web.   The court ruled that LCGM, by employing methods and software designed to defeat AOL's spam filtering technologies, had committed fraud.  This ruling opened the case to state and federal computer fraud laws, providing new grounds for the industry to fight spam.  The court also ruled that the defendant violated AOL's trademark and order it to pay AOL damages and costs, as well as to cease transmission of junk e-mail to AOL members.

More Information
 
AOL v. LCGM, Inc. Opinion and Order 

AOL v. LCGM, Inc. Press Release - 12/21/98

AOL v. LCGM, Inc. Complaint

AOL v. LCGM, Inc. Press Release 1/28/98