MySpace: Lots of news

The two biggest headlines this week are MySpace's lawsuit against a major spammer and its partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to publish Amber Alerts on the site. On the anti-spam front, the suit was filed against Scott Richter, "who allegedly sent out millions of unsolicited 'bulletins' ["newsy" messages to entire friends lists] to MySpace members," CNET reports. According to MySpace, Richter gained access to users' accounts via phishing schemes, then used the site's bulletin feature "to churn out unsolicited messages that advertised" all sorts of products. Richter was similarly sued by Microsoft in 2003. Under the second headline, MySpace today (Tuesday) will start broadcasting Amber alerts in the profiles of members who live in the community where a child has gone missing, the Associated Press reports. The alerts "will appear in a small text box at the top of a user's portfolio. The user can click on the box for more information, including a photo of the missing child and a description of the suspect." Meanwhile, PC World looks at whether the families suing MySpace "for sexual assaults against children who met offline with people they'd been in contact with on the site" actually have a case. Here's last week's coverage on this and a legal commentary on a similar case filed in Texas last June.