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.

Great. Just great.

[lunarscape]

I live in Maryland, work in Maryland, and I went to college in Maryland. It was while I attended college that I started to use this law to sue unsolicited commercial e-mailers. The basis for my claims were quite simple: The junk e-mailer sent their e-mails to my address which ends in my university's .edu address. Simply visiting that .edu website would be enough to determine that this university is located in Maryland. Virtually all of the people I filed suit against were quick to settle.

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.

Re:Great. Just great.

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

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.

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.