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AOL Spam Case Dismissed Over Jurisdiction Problem
An anonymous reader submits "AOL's suit against several Florida-based spammers has been dismissed by a federal judge in Virginia. The judge said the case was tossed because AOL failed to show that Virginia had jurisdiction over the case Apparently being HQ'd in VA and spamming VA residents isn't enough to sue the bastards in Virginia. AOL plans to appeal."
This isn't about burden of proof at all. This is simply about which court has the authority to deal with the case.
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The difference here is that spammers sent and their content to Virginia citizens. Their is a law in Virginia forbidding that specific type of business in Virginia.
Someone in Tennessee would have to violate their community standards to seek out the content on the BBS. Those in Virginia didn't have that option.
Not exactly. AOL/TW has to prove that it is worthwhile to be in the court system, as well as being in the proper jurisdiction. VA is the proper court, if AOL/TW had their ducks in a row. They didn't, and the judge called them on it. Now thay have to start over. I would have guessed something more like "bring me more proof by March 1st 2004" or something like.
There's a stark difference between a service that may be requested from out of state and something that is actively pushed to that state. The case of the Tennessee postal inspector sounds like a load of BS, and I bet the BBS would have won if they'd appealed. AOL is going after a company based in Florida that is doing business (possibly illegally or injuriously) in Virginia. There is an enormous body of caselaw supporting this, so I would be quite surprised if they lost their appeal.
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