Spamigation is mass litigation conducted to intimidate large numbers of people. The term was coined by Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton is a software architect, civil rights advocate and entrepreneur. He graduated from the University of Waterloo....

 of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...

 to explain the tactics of the Recording Industry Association of America

Recording Industry Association of America

The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

 (RIAA), which files large numbers of lawsuits against individuals for file sharing, and DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, which once filed large numbers of lawsuits against users of smart cards.

Spamigation lawsuits are evidently rather inexpensive to conduct, which results in one source claiming that the RIAA actually makes more money from settlements in these cases than it costs to file the lawsuits. Because of the costs of mounting a legal defense, almost all defendants in these cases tend to settle. The RIAA then uses the money from these settlements to "file more suits."

In Brad Templeton's original message post about spamigation, he said:

The RIAA strategy is an example of a new legal phenomenon that I have dubbed "spamigation" – bulk litigation that's only become practical due to the economies of scale of the computer era. We see spamigation when a firm uses automation to send out thousands of cease and desist letters threatening legal action. We saw it when DirecTV took the customer database for a vendor of smartcard programmers and bulk-litigated almost everybody in it... The RIAA uses systems to gather lists of alleged infringers, and bulk-sues them. It has set a price that seems to be profitable for it, while being low enough that it is not profitable for the accused to mount a defence, as they do not get the economies of scale involved.

Spamigation is similar to a Strategic lawsuit against public participation

Strategic lawsuit against public participation

A strategic lawsuit against public participation is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition....

 ("SLAPP") lawsuit, which is filed by a large organization, or in some cases an individual plaintiff, to intimidate and silence a less powerful critic by so severely burdening them with the cost of a legal defense that they abandon their criticism. Spamigation differs in that it aims at stopping an economic activity, in the case of the RIAA's lawsuits the copying of copyrighted material.

Instances

• In the case of DirectTV's lawsuits, they were "sued for racketeering and the courts forced them to stop the spamigation campaign."
• Viacom's recent lawsuits against YouTube
  YouTube
  YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
  
   and Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
  , in which over 100,000 DMCA takedown notices were sent, used a system of spamigation that sent notices to videos if they contained selected phrases of material under Viacom copyright. As a result of this technique, many non-infringing videos were removed.
• Scientology
  Scientology
  Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
  
   has often been accused by critics of using Spamigation under their Fair Game
  Fair Game (Scientology)
  The term Fair Game is used to describe policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies. Founder L. Ron Hubbard established the policy in the 1960s, in response to criticism both from within and outside his organization...
  
   policy. L Ron Hubbard said that enemies of Scientology "May be deprived of property or injured by any means... May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." (taken from HCOPL Oct. 18, 1967 Issue IV, Penalties for Lower Conditions ). Hubbard is also quoted as saying "The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly. —L. Ron Hubbard, A Manual on the Dissemination of Material, 1955. See also Scientology controversies

See also

• Strategic lawsuit against public participation
  Strategic lawsuit against public participation
  A strategic lawsuit against public participation is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition....
  
  
• Chilling effect