Daniel Balsam

Daniel Balsam is an American lawyer best known for his lawsuits against e-mail spammers for violations of Internet spam laws. Balsam has been filing lawsuits against spammers since 2002 and has earned over $1 million in court judgments. By filing lawsuits, Balsam aims to publicize the names of the principals who are profiting from spam advertising. He aims to make spamming less profitable and to cause companies to reconsider their decision to market products through spam. Balsam describes his practice as "cleaning up the Internet," although his critics accuse him of taking advantage of the legal system. Balsam was once awarded a $1.125 million verdict against a pornography company that had sent him 1,125 e-mails. He was not able to collect the judgment, however, because the domain registrar Tucows refused to identify the owner of the company that had sent the spam.

Most of Balsam's lawsuits are brought under California's anti-spam laws. Although many of his cases have been tried in small claims court, he filed the first spam lawsuit that was brought to trial in California Superior Court—Balsam v. Trancos Inc.—which is currently on appeal.

Among the companies that Balsam has sued in small claims court are Various Inc. dba Adult FriendFinder, Tagged.com, Deniro Marketing LLC dba AmateurMatch, and the Stockton Asparagus Festival. The bill aimed to close what its proponents characterized as loopholes and tighten ambiguous language in Business & Professions Code 17529.5 to more clearly set forth what practices are unlawful, and to make it easier to bring lawsuits against deceptive spammers and spamvertisers. Although the bill passed the State Assembly, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Opposition Bennet Kelley, an Internet lawyer whom Balsam has faced in court, has been vocally critical of Balsam's tactics.

Balsam also has been sued by ValueClick, Inc., twice and Bloosky Interactive, LLC, for allegedly violating settlement confidentiality and/or non-disparagement agreements very shortly after entering into a settlement. Balsam maintains that these suits are retaliatory.