The $7 million settlement Microsoft won against spammer Scott Richter is all over the news, as it should be. Microsoft says it will dedicate $5 million of that to further spam fighting. Go Microsoft!

One story says that the spammer’s insurance company will help pay. If there was ever anything that should be excepted from insurance coverage, deliberately spamming (as opposed to your computers being used without permission by somebody else) should be it.

Also note the role of the CAN-SPAM act in giving this guy an excuse to stay in business.

Finally, note that he makes so much money he can afford to stay in business even after paying $7M. Maybe without insurance he wouldn’t be able to.

Instead, as techdirt points out, he’s basically spent $7M on advertising, since almost every article about this settlement quotes him as saying he’s gone legit.

-jsq