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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."
If you don't, refresh your memory here. OK? Good.
Basically, a Tennessee postal inspector brought charges against a BBS in San Jose in a Tennessee court, and managed to get the BBS shut down because it violated Tennessee community standards. This, despite the fact that the BBS was located on the other side of the country. There was a lot of outrage at the time, for obvious reasons -- you don't want to hold an Internet site to the most restrictive standards found anywhere in the world.
It seems to me that this AOL thing is just about the same. Indict the spammers in their home state; that's where they're located. It would be nice to hold them to the most restrictive standards possible, but it would also be kind of unfair.
I'm in Virginia. I sued people from out of state. I've won. I did all that in a Virginia state court.
So you either tagged them instate, they were doing business in Virginia, they consented to jurisdiction in VA, or they had a bad lawyer?
Someone should explain the "long arm" concept of law to hizzoner real fast.
Well, from what I gathered from the article and from my own understanding it sounds to me like he gets it. The spammers don't live in VA and did not purposely avail themselves of doing business in VA, so they didn't meet the threshold for establishing personal jurisdiction, at least according to the judge. Maybe if he had specific knowledge that the crap he was sending out was headed for Virginia it might be different.
As much as I hate AOL, they did have a case to file in State court. My guess is that the judge just didn't wanna deal with it.
As somebody else noted, it was filed in Federal court and not state court, which in the context of why the case was dismissed is meaningless: the geographical boundaries for the federal district courts is the same as for the state that they are located in. My guess is the judge didn't want to try a case that in his esteemed opinion would get overturned later.
fuck you.
1. I don't think they were suing under CAN-SPAM (I highly doubt they could have gotten a case in that quickly after it was signed). I believe it was a state law they were suing under.
2. Federal courts have the same (personal) jurisdiction as the state they are in. So even if they were suing under a federal law (or if the damages were over $75,000 and citizenship is diverse (which it is)), they would have to bring suit in federal court in a state that has personal jurisdiction over them, which in this case would definitely be Florida, and apparently not Virginia.
fuck you.
Wrong entirely over. You misunderstand the post. AOL is HQ'd in VA, and they are suing on behalf of VA residents who were spammed. The post states that the spammers are based in Florida. That is what the dispute is about, whether the case should be tried in Virginia or Florida.
because what hunting rifle has a bayonet lug
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.