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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."
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However, I was very careful to not take on high-profile companies or do anything that might get me noticed because I knew that something like this might happen and the law would be thrown out. Thank you, person who doesn't even live in Maryland, for ruining it for the rest of us.
You're on very precarious legitimacy grounds here. You shouldn't be using a law that you know is challengeable for lack of authority, and trying to continue using it hoping that it'll be insignificant. That's like stealing a credit card number and using it for small purchases; it's equally illegal, with respect to legitimacy. Interstate "commerce" (heh, commercial e-mail counts as commerce) is not Maryland's domain, and they don't have the right to legislate acts across state lines (see the Supreme Court cases in the late 1800s, which effectively said that populists and farmers in Western states' governments could not influence interstate policy). This law would be legal if Maryland were its own nation. But part of the deal in the Union is that you give some authority to the federal government, so you don't have 50 conflicting laws that effectively make it illegal to send any commercial e-mail (meaning business e-mail, not necessarily advertising) because you don't know where it might be routed.
Frankly, even lawyers worth less than the amount of money you sued them for should've been able to pull Interstate Commerce on you. I'm surprised you -- and others -- were able to use this law this long.