Jon

About damn time too.. It dragged on for about 2 years now.

Originally Myspace was seeking, get this, $100M - $1B in compensation for the damages they claimed CPA Empire was responsible for.

The final settlement is actually a little over $4,000,000.

CPA Empire spent around $2,000,000 in legal fees. Ouch.

I gotta say, its good to hear that this bit is finally done with, and my first reaction to it when the news dropped, was pretty negative towards Scott Richter and CPA Empire in general. But as I dug up and got confirmed information, not just blatant rumors and he said, she said industry gossip, I saw this from a completely different perspective.

While other networks and affiliates went around ratting one another out to Myspace and to advertisers (so to drop them), CPA Empire stood their ground and stood up to the pretty damn intimidating giant of Myspace. To date, they are the first and only ones to have done so. True, they did spend what most of us would call an enormous amount of money and resources along with time on it, they ultimately came out doing much better than any of us, including me, had originally gave them.

I think its also interesting enough that there was ZERO evidence of fraud, phishing, hacking, etc. that held CPA Empire liable for what Myspace had originally accused them of. But of course, everyone will forget about that and just focus on the negative stuff, and thus is the result of most suits.

Both sides, CPA Empire and Myspace will be distributing their official press releases and/or statements later today (Friday June 13 2008).

Remember.. you heard it first from WickedFire.com!

This entire post was confirmed by Scott Richter. If you have any questions about it, ask them, not me. Their site; CPA Empire - More Than A Network!

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MyOwnDemon

Myspace needs to crawl into a hole and die already. They are overrun with spam and all other kinds of problems, but they still like to point their finger at everyone one else, shift the blame, and try to sue everyone and everything that comes along and abuses their piss poor, spam friendly system.

I have a top 8 they can suck on. The top 8 inches of my cock.

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Ringtoneking

honestly i think myspace makes more money winning court cases taking these companies who supposedly are accused of spamming and phising and winning multi-million dollar lawsuits

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AdExhibitJason

That is great to hear. I know they spent all sorts of money on it. In the long run though it is good. I will have to talk to my affiliate manager about this. Interesting.

srich10195

Media Breakaway, LLC Announces Arbitrator’s Award is 95% Less Than Demanded by MySpace

Westminster, CO June 13, 2008 – Media Breakaway, LLC, today announced that an Arbitrator has released a final ruling in the proceedings between MySpace, Inc. and Media Breakaway, which originated in January, 2007. The final award in favor of MySpace was 95% less than the amount demanded by MySpace, as the Arbitrator determined that “MySpace’s demands are so disproportionate to proven actual damages, or Media Breakaway profits.”


The Arbitrator ruled that while Media Breakaway should be held responsible for a number of unsolicited commercial bulletins sent to MySpace users in violation of MySpace’s Terms of Use, the company could not be held responsible for the actions of certain affiliates who violated Media Breakaway’s own affiliate terms and conditions.


“We respect the Arbitrator’s findings regarding violations of MySpace’s Terms of Use by certain rogue affiliates, particularly during 2006 when the concept of social networks was still developing. We acknowledged early on in this process that our Company should not profit from the sending of unsolicited commercial bulletins to MySpace users and offered to return any such profit to MySpace, and we repeatedly offered to work with MySpace to resolve mutual concerns,” said Steven Richter, President and General Counsel for Media Breakaway.


Among the findings of the Arbitrator was the fact that the Company has “changed its policies and procedures over time, in dealing with affiliates …and other internet marketing issues”. The Arbitrator also singled out the contributions of several key Media Breakaway team members in the development and improvement of the Company’s compliance practices.


“We appreciate the Arbitrator’s acknowledgement of the many steps we have taken as a company over recent years to improve our compliance practices and our methods of monitoring the activities of our affiliates,” said Richter. “Our goal is to continuously enhance our compliance programs and exceed what is required by law and industry best practices.”


“We are pleased to put this matter behind us, as we look toward the future to work with online companies to help define and implement advertising best practices for our industry,” said Richter. “We firmly believe that positive changes in the online marketing industry come about through cross-industry cooperation and not through costly litigation.”

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Media Breakaway, LLC -- an industry leader in advertising and direct-marketing, delivers full-service, results-oriented solutions. CPA Empire®, a division of Media Breakaway, LLC, is one of the fastest-growing Affiliate Networks in the industry, providing its advertisers and affiliates with unparalleled service and support to help them drive sales and revenue. DataOverdrive, a division of Media Breakaway, LLC, offers List Management Solutions helping clients convert their current lists into a supplemental profit center. Visit www.MediaBreakaway.com, www.CPAempire.com or www.DataOverdrive.com.

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-Bill-

Fuck, a $4mil payout and $2mil in lawyer's fees is nothing compared to the astronomical $100mil myspace was originally seeking.

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HarveyJ

OK, I missed the finer points of this whole stoush.
I know that CPAE were accused of all sorts of crap, but how the hell did Murdoch figure it was worth >$100m ?
Was this the rough amount they were going to charge CPAE to advertise, versus just getting affiliates to promote shit on their MySpaces?

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CPAPIMP

it will happen again. He's been pinned 3 times now, yet still can work with no real issues. I might be in the minority, but this is not the press that our industry needs.

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xmcp123

ROFL. You yourself sell spammer hosting!
Either way, that doesn't make someone bad necessarily. Yeah it's annoying, but until can-spam it was a very legit practice.

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xmcp123

Haha ok. I gotcha. But due respect to CPAE, the spammers should know a mainstream aff network can't take spam e-mail traffic. There's a reason they have their own set of sponsors.

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