Startup that we all forgot gets small win against Facebook on appeal

(credit: Marco Pakieningrat Follow)

A US federal appeals court ruled Tuesday largely in favor of a defunct social networking company-finding that the forgotten startup did not violate an anti-spam statute. However, the court affirmed that Power Ventures did violate an anti-hacking law when it tried to circumvent Facebook's IP block several years ago as part of a promotional campaign.

A lower court had previously ruled in favor of Facebook, which brought the original case against Power Ventures and its Power.com website and issued an award of $3 million to the social network giant. Power Ventures then appealed that up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Tuesday, the appellate court sent the case back down to the District Court for further consideration and a likely reduction of damages.

As Ars reported last year, the case, Facebook v. Power Ventures, revolves around a site known as Power.com, which had tried to be a one-stop shop for social networking-its users could post to Facebook and other sites all in one place.

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