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First Lawsuits Filed under Missouri's No-Spam Law
darksoulz writes "The St. Louis Business Journal is reporting that Jay Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, has filed the first lawsuits under the new no-spam law against two Florida spammers. The law doesn't totally prohibit spam, it just requires that the subject line be tagged to let consumers know that it is an advertisement. One of the lawsuit recipients even managed to spam an address maintained by the attorney general's office."
This is only gonna stop the dumb spammers who are easy to trace... soon they are gonna be up to their eyeballs in spammers who are a bit harder to trace.... I think also this could cause the vengefull spammer to start to really hit some of these guys....One more thing how do spammers know what boxes are in Missouri some sort of list? if it is I'm sure the spammers just love it
The spam trade is possible because of one thing:
Sending millions of emails is extremely inexpensive and like the old adage "ask a million girls for a date and no matter how ugly you are, you'll probably get a few takers"
If it becomes expensive to spam, then the spam will stop and email advertising will become what it's good for, telling potential customers about products that they ARE interested in.
I can't wait for the California law to take effect. It's way more restrictive. I pity the spammers.
M
The states are not permitted to regulate interstate commerce including that which occur within the boundaries of the state. Within the state they are allowed to establish statewide laws, but these laws do not reach outside the boundaries of the state.
The MO no-call and spam laws violate the Constitution interstate commerce clause by reaching far beyond the boundaries of the state and into other states.
Also, it is not clear where exactly a recipient could be at the time of spam arrival. If I were a Missouran and traveled to Denver for business and while in Denver received spam, that is prosecutable under the MO law. There is no way to verify that the spam was actually received in MO. And even if it were traceable to within the MO borders, the law itself violates the interstate commerce clause and is invalidated by the U.S. Constitution.
One of the main arguments against spam is that unlike 'conventional' paper-based junk-mail, the cost of spam is borne by the recipient, not the sender. This consists of the time taken to process the mail (be that reading and/or deleting it) as well as the cost in data transfer to download it.
Legislation mandating (as is the case here) that senders preface spam by adding "ADV: in the first four characters in the subject line or ADV: ADLT if it contains adult material" miss the point. The user has already paid for the download. If you multiply that small figure by the millions of spam emails sent it adds up considerably!
This is no better than allowing thieves to come into your home and steal your valuables as long as they wear a loud coloured shirt advising they are a burglar.
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I would like to see all Spammers eat shit and die, but there is a problem with the Missery law that will most likely get it overturned.
Telemarketers can tell what state they are calling by the area code. But,in most cases spammers can't tell what state their Spammees are in.
The only way a spammer can be sure they never send spam to Missery is to never send spam anyplace. The law will be overturned.
If this law and Asscroft are typical of the legal system in Missery, they are in a world of hurt.
Sending fraudulent email is hardly "interstate commerce". The principle you're referring to does things like prevent states from charging tarrifs or preventing goods from travelling through their state from one state to another. It doesn't mean states can't, say, require commercial driver's licenses for truck drivers, or prohibit you from stealing bandwidth.
paintball
While I am not a lawyer, this strikes me as an attempt by Missouri to regulate interstate commerce. This was one of the few things that the federal government was initially designed to do. Missouri is not supposed to regulate commerce between residents of Missouri and residents of Florida.
I could live with this law being struck down only to see it replaced with a similar federal law. Spam is a global problem that deserves a global, not local, solution; for now, the best we can get is a national solution. Having one federal law will keep it easy for honest emailers to stay legal while outlawing spam.
Trolling for karma since 2003.