E-mailer says suits drove it bankrupt

Found on Denver Post on Tuesday, 29 March 2005
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Richter's company, Westminster-based OptInRealBig.com, has filed for bankruptcy protection in Denver. The company cited a costly legal battle with Gates' Microsoft Corp., which claims OptInRealBig.com illegally spams computer users.

Microsoft officials called the filing a victory. "Microsoft and the state of New York said we would drive him into bankruptcy, and together we have," said Aaron Kornblum, Microsoft's Internet safety enforcement attorney. "The kind of spam Mr. Richter was sending was not only annoying, it was illegal, and the law sets out penalties for this kind of illegal activity."

"They asked if we wanted to settle with them, and we told them where they could go stick it," Richter replied to Spitzer in a Denver Post article.

He claimed his company operated legally and made $15 million a year sending 15 million e-mail messages a day.

Usually the prpblem with lawsuits is the lack of money to defend yourself against big companies. But this is one of the rare cases where it's nice to see that MS can push tons of money into the lawsuit and knock out a spammer. When Richter finally quits, officials should take a good look at the business internals, in order to get a better understanding of spammers.