Slashdot Mirror
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."
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!!!
...there is a Santa Claus! And he listens to Geeks!
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.
But why is the rum gone?
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.
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