by Derrick Williams
Thisweek Newspapers

A Credit River Township man was ordered to pay more than $5 million to America Online (AOL) by a federal judge last week.

Christopher William Smith, 25, sent millions of e-mails advertising a number of different products and services to AOL members.

What Smith violated was the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 which made it illegal to send unsolicited, bulk emails.

U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton issued the summary judgment against Smith. In his judgment, he ordered that Smith pay AOL $25,000 for each day a violation was made.

The court found Smith had made violations on 213 separate days.

The judgment awarded AOL $5.3 million in statutory damages.

In addition to the damages awarded to AOL, Hilton also banned Smith from sending advertising emails in the future.

Smith is currently in jail awaiting trial on federal drug charges related to alleged violations involving an Internet pharmacy he operated.

Derrick Williams is at priorlake.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.

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