And now city man Paul McDonald, also known as Gary Webb, who lives in a small flat in Wimborne Crescent, Westcroft, has faced the wrath of computer giants Microsoft at London's High Court over an internet business that provided email lists for spammers.

McDonald, aged 37, has had a court order slapped on him barring him from "instigating" the transmission of spam emails, after global computing giants the Microsoft Corporation took action against him.

He also faces an inquiry into possible compensation to be paid to Microsoft. If he disobeys the court order he could face possible prison for contempt of court and hefty fines.

Mr Justice Lewison heard that McDonald was the man behind the company Bizads, which sold mailing lists of people it claimed had subscribed to receive business opportunities via email.

His business sold lists of email addresses, without the consent of their owners, for £15 per 250 addresses to companies advertising internet pornography.

Microsoft claimed the company's website, www.bizads.co.uk, told customers: "They have completed an opt-in email form direct from a Bizads website. They are waiting for your opportunity or offer." The website has since closed.

However, Microsoft claimed that the email lists provided included email addresses from its Hotmail service of people who had not opted in or filled in any such form.

These included special 'seeded' addresses or 'target accounts' set up by Microsoft in its ongoing fight against spamming.

The computer giants claimed that they had suffered damage to their goodwill as a result of their Hotmail customers receiving such unsolicited email, and that they have spends vast sums on having to fight spam.

Granting the injunction sought by Microsoft, which prevents McDonald from instigating the transmission of commercial emails to Hotmail accounts, the judge said that spam costs European email providers 39 billion euros a year.

He ordered an inquiry into any compensation to be paid to Microsoft.
richard.cooper@mkcitizen.co.uk