Scots sherrif gets medieval on spammers

David Off writes: "A spammer has been ordered to pay £750 compensation and £616.66 in costs to the recipient of unsolicited commercial email. It is a landmark ruling as it is the first time a UK court has set a level of compensation for junk email. The private prosecution was brought by Gordon Dick under under European Union wide antispam law which makes it illegal to send junk electronic mail. Mr Dick told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that his email address had been "harvested" from a group where he was a member in contravention of the Data Protection Act and EU electronic privacy legislation. The spam mail had been sent to 72,000 recipients. Mr Dick is himself electronic marketing specialist has set up his own website ScotchSpam to highlight and help others with the problem of spam email."