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Microsoft has been awarded nearly $4 million in the company's latest legal victory against spam. In a summary judgment against Daniel Khoshnood of Canoga Park, California, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled in favor of Microsoft.

Microsoft filed the civil case against Khoshnood in June of 2003 claiming that Khoshnood was abusing Hotmail and MSN email services by sending unsolicited emails misrepresenting an affiliation with Microsoft. The emails used subtle variations of Microsoft properties like wwmsn.com and bcentrals.com, and were presented as security patches or system updates. The messages were actually offering a toolbar for download that claimed to automatically update the user's Windows security.

Judge Manuel Real ordered that Khoshnood stop using Microsoft's trademarks and name, stop spamming, and pay damages and legal fees for the Microsoft to the tune of $3.95 million. "Targeted enforcement activity is beginning to have a tangible, negative financial impact on spammers and is changing the economics of spam," said Microsoft in response to the ruling.

Microsoft currently has 60 lawsuits filed in the US against spammers all over the globe. The Redmond giant has won 6 of these cases, 4 settled out of court, scored one summary judgment and had only 1 case dismissed so far. To date, the company claims to have been awarded $54 million dollars in judgments against major spammers.

Mike is a manager at iEntry. He has been with iEntry since 2000.