Maryland Declares Anti-Spam Law Unconstitutional

acidradio writes "The Maryland Supreme Court has ruled that fining a spam mailer in New York is unconstitutional as it tries to control commerce outside Maryland's borders."

Comments

Well, they're right

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a state law, not a federal one. This is the problem with state anti-spam laws, they're only really good when dealing with in-state spam.

I'm in Maryland, but my server is in New Jersey, and the spam could be from anywhere.

laws...

[St. Arbirix]

So when are the federal laws going to show up and be functional? I know the CAN-SPAM act is in place but I'm still getting tons of spoofed reply-to headers. What are the chances that federal anti-spam law will be passed without including 500 addendums like the formation of an internet policing bureau with mandatory unions (a la Patriot Act) or some sort of internet tax in order to fund the effort. Ever since what's-his-face said the internet is a "wild west that will eventually have to come under government supervision" I've been waiting for some laws to show to get them deeper into the net.

I think that these spam laws are a little silly. We're getting closer and closer to a technical solution to the problem but people want a law to stop it "now!" It's the internet. Do you really want it governed like that? There are rules for the transmission of information. There are rules for flow control, protocols with RFCs, and a basic set of standards. Worms don't infect us, we let them in. Spam is and will be a problem up until the authentication services are in place to filter out the cruft, and those are already being put in place. Laws may help alleviate it all, but they're unnatural and don't do anything to fix the vulnerabilities. The net is still primitive and survival of the fittest. Laws come much later.