A small Iowa-based Internet Service Provider has been awarded slightly more than $11 billion in a judgment against a Florida-based spammer, James McCalla. United States District Judge Charles Wolle issued the ruling in December 2005 imposing the fine for sending over 280 million unsoliticed email messages. The order also prohibits McCalla from using the Internet for three years.

Although this judgment sounds nice to the plaintiff (and to all who hate spam), it is uncollectible. No spammer, no matter how successful, can pay anything close to this amount. Also, spammers have reputation of wisely protecting their assets, usually offshore, in anticipation of similar judgments against them. This judgment, and especially its amount, has been highlighted in the press as of great importance. After all, $11 billion is quite a nice amount and catches the attention of the reader. However, the significance of this judgment is mostly the ban on McCalla to use the Internet for three years. As mentioned above, the monetary portion of the judgment is likely to be uncollectable. Thus, the ban, although not bullet-proof, will actually provide an enforceable (in US courts) mechanism to prevent the spammer from engaging in similar activity for the next three years.