A federal jury awarded $2.5 million in
damages to Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va., its subsidiary
Cruise.com and founder Gloria Bohan in a defamation lawsuit
stemming from a dispute over e-marketing and spam.
Unless the
defendant, Mark Mumma, appeals in 10 days, the ruling would end a
legal battle that began in early 2005 when Mumma, a self-proclaimed
anti-spam crusader, tried to collect "damages" from Omega on the
grounds that Cruise.com was guilty of violating anti-spam laws in
e-marketing campaigns.
After he took his
accusations public on his Web sites, asserting, among other things,
that Cruise.com's business was "built on illegal spam," Omega filed
a $3.8 million suit against Mumma and his Oklahoma City-based
company, Mummagraphics. 
Mumma
countersued, charging violation of federal and Oklahoma anti-spam
laws.
The U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed all of Mumma's
accusations, a decision upheld on appeal. Parts of Omega's charges
(copyright and trademark infringement and unauthorized use of the
Bohans' photos) were dismissed, too, but Omega went to trial on the
remaining claim, that the plaintiffs had been defamed.
The jury found
that Mumma had no basis for accusing Omega of spamming and that his
behavior had been malicious.
John Lawless,
Omega's general counsel, said this verdict would provide
reassurance to others concerned about possible false accusations of
violating anti-spam laws. (At trial, Lawless was the chief witness,
so Omega retained James Hodges and Tom Powell as litigating
attorneys in the case.)
For legal
purposes, the more important development, Lawless said, was the
appellate court's decision that Omega had not violated the law
because Cruise.com's e-marketing program had offered an automatic
opt-out link and had provided an address and phone number for
contact.
The appellate
court decision is "the first to look at the Federal Can-Spam Act
comprehensively," Lawless said.
Mumma launched
his campaign by approaching Lawless in January 2005 and demanding
thousands of dollars because Cruise.com had allegedly spammed him with
promotions.
Around the same
time, he claimed in a letter to Omega that he was "guaranteed" a
minimum of $150,000 in compensation under Oklahoma law for the six
e-mails received by that time, but he said that he would settle for
5 cents on the dollar, or $6,250, or he would sue.
When Omega
rebuffed those demands, Mumma went public with his allegations at
one of his sites, SueASpammer.com, calling agency owners Gloria and Dan
Bohan "spam offenders." He also posted their photos under the
headline "Spam offender spotlight, $250,000 in statutory damages
and counting." (Mumma was counting four more e-mails, for his
higher damages claim.)
At that point,
Omega sued, and in its court papers it referred to SueASpammer as a
"for-profit venture ... used by defendants to unlawfully extort
money from legitimate businesses."
While the case
had been pending, Mumma continued to press his accusations. At
trial, Omega reported, the defendant again referred to the
plaintiffs as spammers and admitted his intent had been to
embarrass and humiliate them. At trial, he also said he would
continue to do so after the trial, in part by making a movie called
"Slappsuit."
He had previously
established a Web site, Slappsuit.com, which trumpeted plans for the movie,
which was to tell the "true story of an anti-spammer slapped with a
S.L.A.P.P. suit."
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].