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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.'"
how is he being charged in the US?
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Well, in the extreme case, if you kill someone who presents an immediate threat to your life or limb, or that of your family, it's self-defense, which is a legitimate defense in most states. Granted, the spammers didn't present any such threat to this guy -- but then, he didn't actually physically attack anyone, either. I would say that just as deadly force is a reasonable response to deadly force, violent threats are a reasonable response to unrelenting harassment.
Maybe the best legal solution, instead of anti-spam bills that are doomed to failure anyway (opt-out lists? Oh please) would be to grant immunity for electronic acts committed against spammers which would otherwise be crimes -- e-mail threats, DDoS attacks, worms, etc. Right now, spammers have the exact same rights under laws like the DMCA as everyone else. Take that protection away, and there will be a lot fewer spammers very quickly.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Yeah, but it was a very minor crime. It's the equivilant to me yelling, "I'll tear off your head and shit down your neck if you ever come near my wife again!" if I caught you kissing her at the bar.
1. I was provoked
2. There's no real evidence I have the strength to tear off your head so it's probably not serious
3. I make no actual agressive moves toward you
It's just blustery anger, the guy doesn't deserver, and probably won't get, jail time.
TW
Even claiming to posess Antrhax spores would bring you a plethora of Federal anti-Terrorism charges, not to mention an army of moonsuit goonies. IMHO, he'd be much better off reading up on how to disable spyware. If he were to launch any attack on this "Male Enhancement" company, they'd prolly finger him immediately as he's already bitched to them a bunch.
My real question is WTF was he doing at a penis enlargement site in the first place? Surely he'd be aware that penis enlargement "companies" are a scam.
It is interesting to consider the fact that the company did absolutely nothing to stop harassing him, but did report him to the police. That shows that they were getting his messages and completely ignoring them.
> You threaten to do harm to someone, for whatever reason, its a crime.. you should goto jail...
Oh bullshit. Tell that to the same legal system that didn't do a god damn thing when my fiance's ex threatened to kill me a couple times. The police couldn't care less.
He's getting attention probably because he used the magic "a" word... Anthrax.
It is exactly for that reason that I am now pushing to have internet access removed from local classrooms. The spam and popups have gotten so bad that my second grader sees these messages come up on their classroom computer several times a day. The school has a good IT department, lots of filters, and policy with the best intentions but they just can't keep up with it.
I used to be one of the most vocal about getting/keeping internet access in schools and public libraries. All that has changed now that the spammers have turned the net into the cesspool that it is.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
If the guy was a computer programmer, as the article claims, why the heck didn't he have the knowledge to remove the offending program, rather than putting up with a system that "had been rendered almost unusable for about two months by a barrage of pop-up advertising and e-mail."
Even if it doesn't uninstall through the control panel applet, he should have known how to use msconfig, or a registry hack to stop it from running. (I'm assuming this is a Windows system, since no spammers that I know of have written spambots for Linux....)
If this is the calibre of programmer that works in Silicon Valley, I need to go apply for a job there, and put them all to shame...
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
a Silicon Valley computer programmer (!!!)
So, I see. Installs stuff "mistakenly". And what about other stuff he didn't notice? not all spyware stuff spawn pop-ups.
I guess his machine is infected with crap; now this guy writes code - probably distributes binaries. It seems to me that he is clueless about what is running on his machine - didn't even install a spam filter. He's a programmer, not aunt Sally, that's frightening.
What was the name of the company he was working for, again?
What they did is no better? So now, sending spam is equal to threatening to torture or murder someone?
What Mr. Booker did was illegal and wholly unjustified. He overreacted for whatever reason (I doubt it's solely because he got a lot of spam and suspect there's a lot more going on) and now he has to pay for his actions. He is, after all, an adult and adults are still responsible for what they do and how they react to situations.
We've all gotten frustrated from getting spam. Most of us have gotten frustrated enough to issue threats against the spammer. But really, how many of us actually do that? Surprisingly few. Why? Because we know it won't solve anything and we know it's illegal. It's called "impulse control". While I can sympathize with Mr. Bookers plight, I can't see how anyone can say what he did was justified or what the company did was "equally wrong". That, my friends, is just pure and utter rubbish.
Anthony Papillion
Advanced Data Concepts, Inc.
"Quality Custom Software and IT Services"
I got one of those, and placed it in the trash. And I pay my bills!
Somehow I ran across it later, and to my suprise it was with a company I had done business. Upon checking, I was given credit for a return but I only assumed I was later charged for the replacement.
My assumption had been incorrect.
It is best to get the best spam filter you can get, because I am now getting more spam where I work on assignment than work related emails.
At home, on Linux - Mozilla has been doing an excellent job. Recently I had been wondering why I was seeing so few appearing in my junk email directory. [I got my first one in weeks just today - but I am assuming labeling it and transferring it will spare me].
Another source are companies you have done some sort of business with in the past - that forever more send emails. Hence, I no longer provide my email address to most requests. On these latter, I tend to ignore their emails unless they have something about a 24 hour sale - that gets an immediate deletion. Others can sometimes be of interest, particularly for information that does not enhance their attractiveness. For example, I had been dealing with a company that while priced higher than some others I order through has been extremely reliable. Moreover, they had a good return policy. With their ads I see that have been acquired - though I sometimes check their prices on items it is very unlikely I will chance another order from them. Anyone remember Fat Brain? I only began to noticed the difference that the shipments arrived using USPS (which can be excellent though usually slower). Only later did I learn they were acquired after encouraging my son to place an order with them that was nearly botched.
So the above my be viewed as my SPAM rage - so much easier to take with pretty good filters. Also I never respond to any of the junk.
Very true. In fact, I fail to see how "companies" who send pornography to my 11 year old niece cannot be charged as peodophiles? Actually a lot of the content appears to be peodophilic in nature, which would almost certainly strengthen the cases against them.
Maybe some of the "professional victims" who make a living from suing city councils after slipping on a banana peel, or getting fat by eating too much etc, could address this new market?
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
The idea behind Flash Click-to-View is a really great one, but the installer is broken, there's no uninstaller, the assumptions made by the author about how one browses the web are just stupid (only works as root? please), and the worst part is that he's not fixing any of this. He's not even talking to the users asking for help.
So, it's much like most of the other mozdev extensions I've tried. :-) It compiles/parses/looks pretty! Ship it and ignore it!
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)