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Man Arrested for 'Spam Rage'
Mirkon writes "We've all gotten frustrated at some point with spam. Perhaps we've even been motivated to send nasty, threatening messages back to the spammers, just to vent some frustration. Wired reports that 44-year-old computer programmer Charles Booker did just that, and 'now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.'"
Because the crime originated in the US. Just because there's some hint of the word "international" doesn't immediately mean the suspect gets off scot free.
There's more information (including the company name, which Wired withheld) here.
Email is not an assault, unless the person says they're gonna hurt you, and you have some reason to believe that they are not kidding around.
According to the article, that's exactly what happened here. There were threats about "disabling" employees with bullet, ice picks and anthrax. Talk about getting medieval.
If the neighbor's dog craps in my lawn every day and no complain of mine gets the owner to react, that doesn't empowers me to make threatening phone calls to his house.
No sig
Here we go:
Booker threatened to send a "package full of Anthrax spores" to the company, to "disable" an employee with a bullet and torture him with a power drill and ice pick; and to hunt down and castrate the employees unless they removed him from their e-mail list, prosecutors said.
The rest is just blablabla...
Booker said the problem stemmed from a program he mistakenly downloaded from the Internet that brought a continuous stream of advertising to his computer.
So, he downloaded spyware or adware. That there reduces the amount of sympathy I might have towards him.
Booker threatened to send a "package full of Anthrax spores" to the company, to "disable" an employee with a bullet and torture him with a power drill and ice pick; and to hunt down and castrate the employees unless they removed him from their e-mail list, prosecutors said.
That's just retarded. Threatening to send Anthrax though the mail in the post-9/11 world is a surefire way to get a visit from the FBI. Also, the death threats he made were pretty specific. They're not going to start going arresting everyone who was ever said "Drop dead!" to a spammer.
Also, this guy is apparently a "computer programmer". At the very least, he should know enough to backup his data and do a full reformat and reinstall of his OS (that's standard procedure if software has been installed without your knowledge). He probably should know about Spyware removal software, and if he has any networking skill, he'd know how to either: a) block their site; or b) use a browser that blocks pop-ups.
Yes, spammers are annoying. Yes, they are lowlifes. And yes, they probably deserve to get everything this guy threatened.
However, law enforcement absolutely must take every threat they receive seriously. They don't have a choice. They can't say "oh, well, the report came from a penis pill maker, so it's probably nothing." Sending specific death threats to anyone is illegal. Add Anthrax to it, and you'll be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay before you can say "What seems to be the trouble, officer?" This is not another example of "the man" cracking down on poor Internet users. It was a death threat, plain and simple. The motivation just happened to be spammers. I'm pretty sure the penalty would be the same if this guy had make the exact same threats to some clerk at McDonalds because they kept sending him ads via the postal service.
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
One word: discovery.
If this guy has any brains (perhaps not a warranted assumption) then he's going to get a defense lawyer and let the subpoenas start flying. This company's criminal behavior is all going to get laid out in black and white as part of the discovery process. This is why Emarketers America dropped their suit against spamhaus and SPEWS -- you better believe this guy will have discovery under criminal proceedings.
That said, it's really not nice to aim your death threats at secretaries and customer service people.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
From directnic.com
And a pissed guy:
The fact that these people do Joe Jobs also doesn't help.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
...as learned from Corporate Mechanics:
. ht ml
http://www.corporatemechanics.com/pagesa/ourexp
Looks like they (DM Contact Management, aka the spammer) took CM's advice and liked it:
"Corporate Mechanics has been a key member of the set up team for our business. Corporate Mechanics and the guerilla management methods they have developed have streamlined our operation, technology, staff training, and development. Their assistance has cut our growth curve by a large margin and provided us a strong management and business platform to both operate and grow our firm effectively. The savings of effort and resources has been instrumental in our growth and profitability. The level of diverse experience coupled with the cutting edge solutions have served our company extremely well as they would any business. They get the job done period!
If you are looking for business effectiveness specialists Corporate Mechanics is the real article without question!"
Andrew MacKay, General Manager, DM Contact Management
Customer and Support Services Provider to Internet Marketers
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
So I suppose we should add Brian R Bowman (CEO of Corporate Mechanics) to the s#!t list of bad people who support such badgering of "clients". Maybe even drop him an email at group3@intergate.ca or give him a call (1-888-980-7520) to let him know what you think of the tactics which make otherwise sane people become email murderers.
Yeah, it's illegal to send threats, but I think this guy should get off just on the principal of it. Kind of like sending email threats fo Osama bin Laden or Saddam - kind of chicken soup for the soul.
Of course, being CA, maybe this will spark a 3 day waiting period on ice picks and power tools.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Here is a california law about WMD's and electronic threats (Anthrax is a Biological agent, so I beleieve it's covered here)
California Penal Code 11418.5 Threat to use weapon of mass destruction
11418.5. (a) Any person who knowingly threatens to use a weapon of mass destruction, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety, or for his or her immediate family's safety, which results in an isolation, quarantine, or decontamination effort, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year or in the state prison for 3, 4, or 6 years, or by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(b) For the purposes of this section, "sustained fear" can be established by, but is not limited to, conduct such as evacuation of any building by any occupant, evacuation of any school by any employee or student, evacuation of any home by any resident or occupant, or any other action taken in direct response to the threat to use a weapon of mass destruction.
(c) The fact that the person who allegedly violated this section did not actually possess a biological agent, toxin, or chemical weapon does not constitute a defense to the crime specified in this section.
(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent punishment instead pursuant to any other provision of law that imposes a greater or more severe punishment.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
Registrant:
Leading Edge Marketing Inc.
PO Box CR-56766
Suite #1210
Nassau, New Providence ---
BS
810-815-1672
Domain Name: ALBIONMEDICAL.COM
Administrative Contact:
Leading Edge Marketing, Leading Edge Marketing domains@leminternet.com
PO Box CR-56766
Suite #1210
Nassau, New Providence ---
BS
810-815-1672
Technical Contact:
Leading Edge Marketing, Leading Edge Marketing domains@leminternet.com
PO Box CR-56766
Suite #1210
Nassau, New Providence ---
BS
810-815-1672
Record last updated 06-20-2003 03:25:11 PM
Record expires on 05-23-2008
Record created on 05-23-2001
Domain servers in listed order:
UDNS1.ULTRADNS.NET 204.69.234.1
UDNS2.ULTRADNS.NET 204.74.101.1
Gee...that was tough.
And what kind of retarded programmer is this that he doesn't even know how the internet works in this day and age? You don't reply to spam. Of course it's going to get worse. You simply launch a ddos attack on their mail servers while talking to their ISP and forcing them to stop hosting the wankers. And if they don't, then ddos them and talk to their ISP. Etc.
Here's a start...
Starting nmap 3.48 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap ) at 2003-11-22 12:23 Ea
Interesting ports on 65.39.243.197:
(The 1650 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
PORT STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open ssh
25/tcp open smtp
80/tcp open http
443/tcp open https
587/tcp open submission
801/tcp open device
873/tcp open rsync
Device type: general purpose
Running: FreeBSD 4.X
OS details: FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE
Uptime 123.792 days (since Mon Jul 21 18:24:33 2003)
Nmap run completed -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 20.954 seconds
FreeBSD. Good. More of a challenge =)
01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101110
Flash Click-to-View helps get rid of those stupid blinking flash ads. These are the ones that get around most ad-blocking software. Combine this with adblock and you have a very effective combination that gets rid of almost every ad out there with minimal configuration (just add the offending domains or some keywords to adblock's list, like "*.doubleclick.*" "*.atdmt.*" "*.x10*" "*ads.*", you get the idea).
NOw, IANAL, but I do believe I know what assault means, and yes, this *was* assault. If someone feels threatened for their personal safety, that *is* assualt, by definition. Don't confuse "assault" with "assault and battery". Assault does not mean that anything physical actually took place. It is merely the threat of such an act.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. -- Walt Whitman
Here's what's going to happen after February 21:
-
You're going to get tons of spam, and from major companies. This becomes legal, even in states where it used to be illegal.
-
The headers will be correct. There are penalties for forging headers.
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The spam won't necessarily have the company name, just some unsubscribe URL and a P.O. box for written "opt-out" requests.
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You can go through the motions of "opting out", but it won't do much.
"Opt-out" is interpreted narrowly, on a "per sender" basis. "Sender" is defined narrowly - "The term `sender', when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means a person who initiates such a message and whose product, service, or Internet web site is advertised or promoted by the message." (from S.877) Note the "and"; it's not there by accident. Each combination of spammer and advertiser may be considered a different "sender". That clause could even be interpreted to completely let third-party spammers off the hook.
So advertisers get to throw away the opt-out list every time they change spamhauses. There's even a "separate line of business" exception to make this explicit - spammers with both "Viagra" and "refinancing" spams don't have to use the opt-out list from one with the other.
-
You can't sue. Only the FTC and the U.S. Justice Department can sue.
This was all carefully crafted by lobbyists for the Direct Marketing Organization, who will be celebrating as soon as they get some sleep, having been up all night getting this through the House.m0nkyman wrote:
He would not be convicted.
It's call "jury nullification" when a jury cuts someone loose without regard to the facts of the case, usually for reasons larger than the case. It has *always* been within the power of the jury to judge both the law and the facts, but the legal system has warped things to the point at which juries are not informed of this and, in fact, they are misled to believe that they must follow the instructions of the judge. No juror ever has to vote "Guilty" in any case, for any reason, at any time, if he believes the defendant should be freed. It's best to confine one's reasons, though, to the facts of the case and simply not budge.
When the jury acquits, the protection against double jeopardy prevents the state from prosecuting that person on those specific charges. Thus, the law is said to have been nullified, at least in that case. When it happens in larger numbers, as happened in prosecutions in New England for violations of the Runaway Slave Act, and in Prohibition cases, the law can be generally nullified. When this happens, the power that be usually rush to change the law lest people catch on that they can do this for any and all obnoxious laws.
Jury nullification comes about when at least one person on the jury simply will not vote for conviction. It doesn't come about by talking about it, it comes about by doing it. "I'm sorry, I'm just not convinced he is guilty. It would be terribly wrong to convict this person." If that view prevails and the jury votes unanimously, "Not Guilty," then the person cannot be charged again. If the jury becomes hung, a mistrial is declared and the state can and usually does proceed again with a fresh new trial, sometimes doing it three or four times until getting a conviction. Many believe that any failure to get a unanimous conviction should be regarded equally with a verdict of "Not Guilty."
If jury nullification were to catch on in cases of revenge against spammers, it would effectively be open season on spammers. Despite the predictable objections of the prissy among us who intone darkly about any self defense of any kind, it would be a Good Thing(TM) and refreshing as all hell.
Look at the bright side: there's always seppuku.