A notorious “Spam King” and his partner now owe MySpace about $230 million in damages after a federal judge awarded the popular online hangout what is believed to be the largest anti-spam judgment ever.

The judgment is a big victory for MySpace, although service providers often have a tough time collecting such awards. But even if the News Corp.-owned site never collects, it hopes the judgment deters other spammers.
“Anybody who’s been thinking about engaging in spam is going to say, “Wow, I better not go there,” MySpace’s chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigham, told The Associated press on Tuesday. “Spammers don’t want to be prosecuted. They are there to make money. It’s our job to send a message to stop them.”
U.S District Judge Audrey B. Collins in Los Angeles ruled in MySpace’s favor Monday after Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines failed to show up for a court hearing.
Wallace earned the monikers, “Spam King” and “Spamford” as head of a company that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s. He left that company, Cyber Promotions, following lawsuits from leading Internet service providers such as Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, only to re-emerge in a spyware case that led to a s $4 million federal judgment against him in 2006.
“MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site,” Nigam said in a statement. “We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members.”
Nigam told the AP that Wallace and rines created their own MySpace accounts or took over existing ones by stealing passwords through ‘phishing” scams.

Source: Bangalore Mirror

It was once meant to dispatch dissidents, the sheer drop ensuring that no evidence remained. Subsequently, the British turned the entire place into a summer getaway, and the edge o the precipice was a favorite for colonial types with nothing else to do but shoot the breeze and contemplate the void.

These days Tipu’s Drop in Nandi Hills might be serving a very different, and far more sinister, purpose. Top police officials fear that terrorists could use the spot, with its rarefied air and panoramic view, to do a reccy of the BIAL airport at Devanhalli. Worse, in a nightmare scenario, it could even be a launching pad for a RPG or bazooka attack on low-flying aircraft or airport installations. Just sixty kms from Bangalore, Nandi Hills is about 12-15 kilometers from the new airport.

IDEAL RECCY SPOT

Chikkaballapur Deputy Superintendent of Police(DySP), K Nanaiah conceded that the hill could be an ideal platform for a terrorist outfit to study air traffic and various other activities in the airport. “The issue will be discussed with senior police officers before the international airport starts operating from May 23. A team of experts would be asked to conduct a study and give a comprehensive report about the arrangement to be made by the police to avert a possible terror plot to the BIA from the Nandi Hill summit,” he said.
The report with necessary recommendation would be sent to the government, he added.

UNHINDERED VIEW
On a clear day the entire BIA airport can be seen from Tipu’s Drop, KSTDC hotel and from the Palar Lake side. The two runways, all the terminals, apart from the landing and take off of aircraft can be seen without even the slightest of obstacles. As it’s, even before the airport has started functioning, tourist armed with binoculars and zoon lens gazing towards Devanhalli is a common sight.

NO POLICE PRESENCE

Currently, only three policemen are deputed at the Nandi Hills outpost and that too as a different to anybody bent on sucide! However, ShivaKumar, Inspectors, Chikkaballapur police station under whose jurisdiction Nandi Hills falls, isn’t a worried man. He explains that no visitors will be allowed at the place after 6 pm except for valid passholders or VVIPs. He also points out that with just a few rooms on top, there wont be any hideouts for terrorists. And all the villages are situated at the foothills. “But Yes,” he aggress, “terrorists can always figure out a plan to use the place for studying the airport. Constatn monitoring on the part of the police is the need of hour.”

REMEDIAL MEASURES
• Round the clock patrolling
• Watch towers to check for suspects
• Full fledged plice station
• Ban on photography from the side facing BIAL
• Setting a time limit for tourists to watch the landing and take off aircraft.
• To plant trees to block visibility

Source: Bangalore mirror