Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AOL Spam Case Dismissed Over Jurisdiction Problem

Posted by timothy on from the approach-slowly-swing-fast dept.

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."

1 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Remember Amateur Action? by Bryant · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.