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Virginia Arrests Man For Spamming
volpe writes "According to this Yahoo news story, Virginia arrested a North Carolina man for spamming in violation of a new state law. He was arrested Thursday afternoon in Raleigh, NC. The story is pretty fresh, so the news details are still pretty thin."
I demand a spear through the heart! (Delivered by a bare breasted maiden, of course.)
sulli
RTFJ.
This spam problem is getting out of control, I am glad that some one is trying, but the problem is that the spammers will probably move out of the country.
Although based in North Carolina, Virginia is asserting jurisdiction over Jaynes because he sent messages through computers located in the state.
Roughly 50 percent of the world's Internet traffic passes through Virginia, home to big Internet companies like Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX - news) American Online unit and MCI (Other OTC:WCOEQ - news).
I like this new so called 'state' law.
Prosecutor: Your spam is illegal. You'll be prosecuted in all 50 states and more on different state crimes since your email traveled through all 50 states.
Hmm .. on second thought .. this might not be such a good thing for people
who actually send emails.
Prosecutor: Your email allows us to prosecute u at least 50 times minimum.
There's an interesting stat about Virginia, and why their anti-spam law seems to be more important than other states laws. 50% of internet traffic flows through the state, thanks to MCI and AOL being headquartered there.
They are right in saying that spam is harming these companies in their state and, strangely enough, have at least tried to do the right thing.
He will inevitably drop the soap and have to bend over to pick it up.
I hope his inmates didn't buy any of his C0mp.le.tely 100 % N.a.T.u.R.a.L. MEN Enhancement!1!1!!!
...for doing something that they won't legally be able to do in just 2 weeks.
...there is a Santa Claus! And he listens to Geeks!
I think it's great that something is being done about spamming, though I don't think it's a criminal but a civil offense.
Although based in North Carolina, Virginia is asserting jurisdiction over Jaynes because he sent messages through computers located in the state.
So does this mean that any spam passing through any of VA's pipe or VA is liable to be punished?
Or did he send spam to someone at VA? The article is not very clear on that, but it seems likely.
But if its merely because it passed through VA, then whoa! Infinite coolness.
From the article:
"Although based in North Carolina, Virginia is asserting jurisdiction over Jaynes because he sent messages through computers located in the state.
Roughly 50 percent of the world's Internet traffic passes through Virginia, home to big Internet companies like Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX - news) American Online unit and MCI (Other OTC:WCOEQ - news)."
So that means he can be charged in federal court, too, since his crime involves multiple states, doesn't it? Or does it have to be shown that his email crossed into multiple states in order to take it to federal court? I would like to see more spammers be tried in federal court because the financial penalties are more significant and injurous than in many states. I would think a case could be made for the intent to damage people in multiple states just by accessing Virginia given its backbone status.
Of course, having a spammer charged in multiple states would be fine, too, just as long as it sticks and he pays for his crime in a way that deters him and others like him (I know, small chance of that).
- tokengeekgrrl
officials were in negotiations for the surrender of a second man...
They're negotiating a surrender? Sounds like something I'd see on prime time USA, with a SWAT team and about fifty riflemen with guns trained on a panoramic storefront window. The retard must be shitting in his pants about now...
Come out slowly, with your email headers unforged!
I know we all hate and despise spam, but doesn't a possible 20 years in the clink sound a bit excessive?
Seems to me that the punishment should fit the crime - in this case, economic penalties (aka, "big fat fines"), and mandatory loss of Internet access would be more appropriate.
I'm just waiting for the follow up story on how it was a worm on his computer sending out the spam and he had no idea.
I'd be pissed if my mom got arrested under this law because she didn't have her computer patched and got some spam-worm.
-Steve
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
Our Jail Systems are definately overcrowded, and to alleviate the problem some violent criminals are getting released early, too early.
This law will just compound the problem. Does sending spam justify PRISON TIME, i don't think so. They should just put them under house arrest or major community services AND revoke all internet access.
Let the punishment fit the crime.
But why is the rum gone?
This guy is listed on spamhaus.
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=150989&nid=25
What a cool state. When someone sends them spam, the entire state gets up, walks over to a whole different state, and grabs and drags the spammer back, kicking and screaming.
The man arrested, Jeremy Jaynes (aka Gaven Stubberfield, and Jeremy James), was listed as the worlds 8th worst spammer on http://www.spamhaus.org/index.lasso. Spamhaus is a site that tracks the activity of spammers around the world. It also lists USA,China,And South Korea as the worst spamming countries.
I don't know, I might be crazy. When I first looked at the topic of this story, I read it as 'Viagra Arrests Man For Spamming'.
RaGe
We're all just noise on the wires..
>
> They're negotiating a surrender? Sounds like something I'd see on prime time USA, with SWAT team and about fifty riflemen with guns trained on a panoramic storefront window. The retard must be shitting in his pants about now...
>
>Come out slowly, with your email headers unforged!
"Slowly" is not the proper way for a spammer to surrender to law enforcement.
To the "second man[sic -- not a human, actually a spammer]" whose surrender is "under negotation", please disregard the poster's advice.
ATTENTION SPAMMERS: Did you know that if you take a toy gun, and paint over the little fluorescent ring on the end with black paint, or if you dip a water gun in black paint, or if you just carve a potato into the shape of a gun and apply black shoe polish, your surrender can be negotiated much more quickly and efficiently.
Simply opt in to any one of these three easy options, and then run directly towards law enforcement officers while holding your black-colored gun-shaped object. For additional efficiency, scream as loud as you possibly can that you have "just one more free offer to send out" while running towards aforementioned law enforcement officers.
This public service announcement on proper surrender techniques for spammers has been brought to you by the approximately one billion email users of Planet Earth.
There were more details in this article where the laws they allegedly broke are described. Evidently penalties are up to five years prison and $2500 fines for sending 10,000 messages in 24 hours or 100,000 messages in 30 days.
there is one, and it's headquartered in VA.
I hope that the SPAM either originated or was delivered in Virginia (though possibly by zombie machines in Virginia), because you have no control over where something is being routed.
It'd be a very sticky situation if you had to ensure that whatever you did was legal through every jurisdiction that traffic went through. So the line was down and it got routed over Virginia *this week*. Oh fun, new legal statutes to adhere too, wii..
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
If someone did as much damage to the phone system as spammers are doing to email, they would be labeled terrorists and imprisoned/executed.
It appears, based on the article, that this was the product of work by Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. I'm pleased that he's enforcing the law, but by way of background, I should point out why he's choosing to enforce this particular law at this particular time.
Our governor, Mark Warner, is a millionaire hundreds of times over, having made his fortune in tech in Northern Virginia. He got elected on the strength of his business and tech expertise. His term is up in two years, and, under Virginia law, he can't run for reelection. So the race is on between Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine and Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, the presumed Democratic and Republican nominees.
As is often the case with vice-anythings, Kaine is forced to live under the shadow of Gov. Warner for the time being, while Kilgore is under the shadow of nobody. Kilgore tends to spend most of his time ensuring that people aren't having sex (he's working to keep Virginia's ridiculous bedroom laws on the books; sex outside of marriage is illegal, oral sex is illegal, homosexuality is illegal, etc.) and attempting to keep from getting indicted for his role in the recent Republican wiretapping scandal, something that has just been revealed in the past week.
So, Kilgore gets a twofer with this prosecution. Not only is this yet another thing that he can tout on the campaign trail ("Kaine? Tech? Hell, I brought two spammers back from Carolina, hog-tied and all!"), but he's no doubt hoping that this will overshadow, at least for a few precious days, some of the accusations against him for wiretapping charges.
Again, I'm glad to see this law enforced. Virginia's law is badly-written, in the sense that it must be enforced by Commonwealth's Attorneys, and few of them have the slightest concept of how to or desire to do so. It's good that our Attorney General is willing to take the lead in cracking down.
-Waldo Jaquith
I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion with many people but, whether you like it or not, it's the sane opinion.
I hate spam as much as the next guy. Spam is like being harassed by a horsefly when you just want to sit in the boat and go fishing. Spam is a terrible nuisance. That said I don't want to see this guy go to prison unless he was spamming for unsavory things like ridiculously immoral pr0n or predatory pyramid schemes. I just want him, and other people like him, to STOP SENDING SPAM.
At the same time I realize that while it would be nice to let the punishment fit the crime that's not the way our judicial system works. There are no alternative punishments like ensuring that this guy can't own a computer or be associated with marketing organizations. It would be impossible to prevent him from somehow getting back into the same business of spamming people to make money. Our judicial system provides for parole but, unless someone's watching this guy 24-7-365, he'll always be able to get back into the spam market. Aside from a horribly expensive parole system the only thing that we can do with spammers is put them in prison and hope that they don't start running spam rings from the inside (movie: Blood in Blood out).
I just don't know where it all goes anymore.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
Your email travels through lots of routers in lots states during it's delivery. So who gets to prosecute? The state with the most stringent anti-spam measures, I would assume. But making this sort of distinction sets precedence for things OTHER than spam: for example decency/access laws w.r.t. adult materials.
And at some point in the future, this may extend to deciding who gets to levy state taxes on an electronic purchase. Buyer's state? Business's state? Location of the webserver? Warehosue? They may point to this case and say: in the course of an Interstate transaction, computers critical to the transaction completing in XYZ state are enabling commerce, and thus the transaction is subject to XYZ state's tax laws.
Once you start recognizing the computers in-between the end points of a transaction, you open yourself up to all sorts of state legislation designed to take advantage of internet traffic.
This may be a little premature an assessment, however, because the article doesn't say whether or not the spammer spammed AOL customers, in which case it's a direct offense on a business located in VA... this does not set precedence because if that were the case, AOL would be the endpoint of the spamming (regardless of whether the spammee is in another state as well, having yet to download it). For all we know, the filters caught the spam, it never reached the customers, and AOL reported it to the police.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
-- (Paraphrased Clark Griswald from "Christmas Vacation")
Now, the question is, "Do they deliver?"
But why is the rum gone?
A better way is to post to most, if not all the usenet newsgroups. Just put this in a message:
unsubscribe spam (your email address here)
Nothing worse that 10,000 nerds carrying a grudge for the rest of your life. You might as well just drop out of society completely.
At least you'll have 10,000 people to keep you company.
- Protesting about his First Amendment Rights being squashed
- Abused as a child
- Private conversations were taped without his permission
- Roughed up when arrested
- Evidence was planted
- Friends and family all claim he is 'a really nice guy'
Did I miss anything?
"Simply opt in to any one of these three easy options, and then run directly towards law enforcement officers while holding your black-colored gun-shaped object."
More appropriate:
"We have sent you this replica assault rifle with a 30-day money back gaurantee. Should you keep your replica assault rifle, we will automatically continue your replica assault rifle subscription and another rifle will be sent to you each month.
"Should you not want this specacularly realistic replica assault rifle or any other replica assault rifles from us in the future, you may opt-out of our replica assault rifle deliveries by simply calling the police to your house and carrying the replica assault rifle to them. You may receive a message stating that you are not certified to possess an assault rifle and to stop immediately, but you can ignore this message as it is merely a problem with your local police department's ability to recognize a top-quality replica like ours. This problem will resolve itself automatically as you get closer to the law enforcement officer."
paintball
If that's not an interference with interstate commerce, I don't know what is.
2. Mens rea - Knowledge/intent of the crime. Most crimes (other than traffic violations) require at least that the accused knew he was doing the facts that make up the crime (not that it IS a crime, only the underlying facts). Here, the crime requires that the email pass through Virginia. How is he supposed to know whether a particular email he sends is passing through Virginia? Even if he is sending it to AOL, he doesn't necessarily know that AOL is in Virginia.
Yet another conflict between fighting spam and preserving our rights.