Slashdot Mirror
Judge Rejects Guilty Plea From AOL Employee
The Hobo writes "Newsday has a story on a New York judge who rejected Jason Smather's guilty plea. Smathers, covered previously on Slashdot, was the AOL employee who stole and sold AOL addresses to spammers. The judge himself apparently cancelled his AOL subscription due to receiving too much spam. While he didn't like what Jason did, he wasn't convinced a crime had been committed under the CAN-SPAM law, which requires that a person be deceived."
You've got Bail!
Didn't the guy steal millions upon millions of AOL Screen Names and fence them? Isn't that covered under the STEAL-SHIT Act? Can I guarantee a reservation in his court? I have my eyes on this Porsche.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
No, he COPIED a list of email addresses. That is not theft, it is piracy, and only if those email addresses constitute a copyrighted work.
Copyright is evil. Information wants to be free. Something about beer. Let the guy go! blah blah blah
</range>
The judge used to have AOL, how much could he possibly know about this topic?
whoops, xml error, i know. i'm used to writing range tags.
> he's charged with "conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property"
The actual charge: "conspiracy to conspire and interstate a conspiracy for the electrical transportation of privately owned copyright protected electronic Internet based material constituting a conspiracy to interstate the committal to infringe laws defined by copyright infringement laws on the electronic Internet network, on Mondays, after 15:00 but not later than 17:00"
...reverse psychology does work!
He stole a list of e-mail addresses. Isn't that theft?
No, the **IA is EVIL! It's a backup copy! I bought it several years agon on vinyl, and so I am entitled to a space shifted copy! It isn't theft, because they still have a cop-
WAITAMINUET! I'm sorry. I didn't know that this was a story about spammers...
KILL the spammer! They are bandwidth thieves, stealing a 'commons' from all of us! This guy is a THIEF, he took a copy of a private list! Publish his address someone, so I can mail him a sack of POOP!
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
"I'd rather sit through pages of beowulf-clustered, linux-running insensitive korean clod jokes in soviet russia than read another damn "can you say X" line."
Can you say "thin skin"?
First, kill someone. Then run a red light while disposing of the body. :-)
My other car is first.