NASCAR fan faces prison time for flooding Fox with angry e-mails
By MARK PRATT, Associated Press Writer
April 16, 2003
BOSTON (AP) -- A NASCAR fan faces up to a year in prison for flooding Fox Entertainment with more than a half-million e-mails because he was angry the network aired a Boston Red Sox game instead of an auto race.
Michael Melo of Billerica has agreed to plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of damage to a protected computer system, his attorney said Wednesday.
The action forced the network to shut down part of its Web site.
Melo designed a program that repeatedly sent the same six e-mails to Fox Entertainment Group Inc. in Los Angeles over a few days in late April and early May 2001. The messages were sent through the company's Boston-area affiliate, according to the federal complaint.
``He was just very upset that the Red Sox would pre-empt NASCAR, so he decided to send these messages to express his views,'' said Melo's lawyer, Andrew Good.
Fox received more than 530,000 e-mails from Melo. Fearing a hacker was attacking its computer system, the company shut down a portion of its Web site, costing Fox $36,000, according to federal prosecutors.
Also, by taking a portion of its Web site down, Fox Entertainment was unable to communicate via computer with WFXT-TV 25 in suburban Boston for several hours, and left the local affiliate unable to receive viewer e-mail, prosecutors said.
The federal complaint did not specify the exact content of the e-mails.
Fox Entertainment spokesman Scott Grogin declined comment.
The charge carries a maximum of one year in prison. Melo, who works in the computer industry and has no prior criminal record, will ask for probation, Good said.
``There was no intention to cause any of this damage and the government isn't claiming he did,'' Good said. ``It happened, but it was produced by machines running wild. He's sorry it happened, obviously.''
A message left on an answering machine for a Michael Melo in Billerica was not immediately returned on Wednesday evening.
No date has been set for his plea hearing and sentencing.
Updated at Wed, Apr 16 2003, 8:05pm
By MARK PRATT, Associated Press Writer
April 16, 2003
BOSTON (AP) -- A NASCAR fan faces up to a year in prison for flooding Fox Entertainment with more than a half-million e-mails because he was angry the network aired a Boston Red Sox game instead of an auto race.
Michael Melo of Billerica has agreed to plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of damage to a protected computer system, his attorney said Wednesday.
The action forced the network to shut down part of its Web site.
Melo designed a program that repeatedly sent the same six e-mails to Fox Entertainment Group Inc. in Los Angeles over a few days in late April and early May 2001. The messages were sent through the company's Boston-area affiliate, according to the federal complaint.
``He was just very upset that the Red Sox would pre-empt NASCAR, so he decided to send these messages to express his views,'' said Melo's lawyer, Andrew Good.
Fox received more than 530,000 e-mails from Melo. Fearing a hacker was attacking its computer system, the company shut down a portion of its Web site, costing Fox $36,000, according to federal prosecutors.
Also, by taking a portion of its Web site down, Fox Entertainment was unable to communicate via computer with WFXT-TV 25 in suburban Boston for several hours, and left the local affiliate unable to receive viewer e-mail, prosecutors said.
The federal complaint did not specify the exact content of the e-mails.
Fox Entertainment spokesman Scott Grogin declined comment.
The charge carries a maximum of one year in prison. Melo, who works in the computer industry and has no prior criminal record, will ask for probation, Good said.
``There was no intention to cause any of this damage and the government isn't claiming he did,'' Good said. ``It happened, but it was produced by machines running wild. He's sorry it happened, obviously.''
A message left on an answering machine for a Michael Melo in Billerica was not immediately returned on Wednesday evening.
No date has been set for his plea hearing and sentencing.
Updated at Wed, Apr 16 2003, 8:05pm
