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Jail for Selling Email Lists to Spammers
amigoro writes "UK will start jailing the people who trade in email addresses, or any other personal data. The current Data Protection Act only fines people who do that, but the money one can make from trading in personal information was far higher than the measly GBP 5000 one had to pay if caught. The new regulations will result in a two year prison sentence for violating the Act."
It's about time that a government put some teeth behind privacy legislation. Now when will this become an international treaty?
We need an equivalent law here in the US.
Who will guard the guards?
Party! Round of beers on me! $100 rewards to anyone providing information leading to an arrest! I think I'll go get drunk!
Spam Thwart: Anti-Spam Collective
Fine: GBP 5000
Legal bills: GBP 2000
Your cellmate Bubba finding out that you're the one behind him getting all those Nigerian emails: Priceless
Good, I'm sure I'm not the only one that shares mutual hate for spammers and marketing staff that want to sell you worthless crap!
Do I hear $5 for rodgster@yahoo.c o m?
Bark less. Wag more.
Why don't you go to the UK and file your bogus lawsuit against Spamhaus now?
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
It seems everyone these days are too eager to throw people in jail. Two years in jail for a non-violent crime? Two years of your life is a very long time. It's longer than you may think, and spending it in jail doesn't help society very much. Yes, I know it's suppose to be a deterrent, but I think a better deterrent would be a much larger fine, probation, and maybe your email address along with your crime made publicly known. Regardless, I still think we are too quick to just throw people in jail and forget about them.
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
We can't fill 'em fast enough. No room for these guys though.
What?
I'm a firm believer in some sort of nightmare medieval punishment for spammers, preferably involving red hot iron applied to tender parts in proportion to the number of spam emails sent. This is not there yet but is a good start.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
just went up. Which ofcourse will create more email harvesting.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
email addresses? Such as those who are infected with a harvester. I know that is how my gmail address got out. I didn't receive any spam until I received a mass email inviting all the 200 people who were accepted to the University of Minnesota graduate program in CS to an orientation. At least one of the people who got that must have been infected with spyware that harvests addresses(I know they should know better since they are going to be CS grad students and yet....) and spam started regularly coming into my inbox. It isn't as bad as the 100 or so spams I day I received at my old university address(which I was careless with, but that was before spam became as huge a problem as it is today).
Should the offender be tracked and punished? After all, (s)he gave away my personal info without my consent. Not intentionally and didn't make any money, but its an interesting question nonetheless.
Monstar L
I get tonnes of junk mail through my door even though I always check/uncheck the don't pass my details on to someone else box.
Next time I move house I'm going to register all my bills in different names so that I know exactly who's passing my details on.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Or if I'm strapped for cash, I'll sell the email addresses to Bubs for use in his free weekly spamvertisements.
{Strong Bad drops the CD}
STRONG BAD: Oops! Lookit that! I dropped a CD of five-thousand email addresses!
{Bubs throws the bag of money on the ground}
BUBS: Whoops! I dropped a quarter for each one!
http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/unused_emails
You'll get 160 hours community service.
GB is coming under flack for overcrowded jails - to the point that they are letting Paedophile walk - they are not going to lock up spammers. FROM BBC NEWS: Paedophile escapes prison A man who downloaded dozens of child porn pictures won't be sent to prison - partly because of overcrowding in England and Wales. Derek Williams was given a suspended sentence. Judges have been told to only put the most dangerous criminals behind bars for the time being. A Downing Street spokesman said advice was sent to judges on sentencing but only as a reminder of the guidelines.
I hate spam, but traditional jail is excessive for anyone that sells e-mail or private information. I view jail as a place we should send people if the crime can actually cause physical harm to someone's life or limb. Then it makes sense for them to be physically seperated from society. If they commit a crime that's going to cost someone financially, drop a big punitive fine on their ass. Someone who sold private information so they could live the high life with a luxury car and a high rise penthouse should at worst face an entire life of paying back debts. They can live in a fleabag apartment and drive a pinto.
However, I wouldn't be opposed to say a sentence that put them in jail every weekend for two years. They can still try to earn an honest buck, and get a solid reminder of what they did wrong.
...adding telemarketing lists to this?
No wait, that wouldn't work. The phonebook makers would then be put in jail.
-Maurice
FixingTheWeb.com Helping to keep the bad guys out...
Your private data is like your private parts. No one has the right to expose them without your permission.
Nothing to see here
Blue collar prison with conjugal visits. People like this need to go to federal prison, where they might be complimented on the beauty of their mouth.
Don't you hate glorious self-promotion? Visit my Blog
Too many problems.
Does this apply to recruiters and other people whose job it is to keep track of people? They pass people's contact information around all the time.
How about social networking site operators, whose site leaks contact information to third parties?
How about corporate officers of information broker firms like Acxiom? These companies never have permission directly from the people whose information they have.
The information broker firms are also the reason why this sort of law would never even pass in the US.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
The law should be treating spammers to a long tour of Iraq digging front-line latrines with a target sign.
The champagne? We need to celebrate!
I also support our President, George W. Bush and I support the War in Iraq and the War on Terror. There are no "innocent civilians" in this war.
IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT BUSH THEN YOU SUPPORT BIN LADEN AND 9/11!
foxnews.com -- Learn the truth!
Spam isn't a big deal, terrorism is. GET SOME PRIORITIES!
which does seem mild compared to the potential property damages that can be caused by this, depending on the number of addresses being sold.
...
/. that jail time should be reserved to violent (blue collar) crimes, and economic (white collar) crimes should only get fines. The economic crimes are often much more damaging, because the number of victims is so much higher, and the perpetrators are often quite used to (and willing to) taking economic risks. Serving jail time seem much more real.
What is the maximum penalty for breaking into a computer, stealing information, and in the process leave the computer unusable?
And I strongly disagree with the sentiment often heard here on
The notion also smack towards sending poor people in jail, and letting rich people go free, which is not exactly strengthening the fabric of society.
Instead of jail time or community service, sentance them to 1 hour per 100 e-mails in a federal automated PMITA machine?
Ya know, it would have stocks and some sort of reciprocating er...machinery
or....maybe not
A goal is a dream with a deadline
.... and it should be community service for those who don't Bcc.
And since when did we start listening to jails, anyway?
The British jails are full. They're letting rapists, paedophiles and murderers out because they've nowhere to put them. You think a spammer is going to get any time?
Deleted
UK is a member of the EU, and as such is not allowed to restore the death penalty. Thus, death by torture as subject implies, is not an option, and jail time will have to do.
I really hate the pervasive meme that a crime is less of an issue if the damage is spread out over many victims, rather than concentrated on a few individuals. The economic damage done by a single large scale spam attack is large enough to fund several life saving operations. Just because you can't name the person who died doesn't make the crime any less severe.
And yes, the two years jail time is the upper limit, reserved to the worst cases. Most offenders will get far less than that, and first time offenders will most likely not even face jail time.
We can call it Spam's Labyrinth!
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
Just a thought; But would this apply to Credit Card Company's, Lending Institutions, or Credit Rating Company's? More identities have been "published" from these types of businesses than any other, to date. I know my credit rating may be affected by this posting.
This is nothing but GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE in the FREE MARKET! If the governement would just stay away, everything would work out for the BEST for the CUSTOMER!
Considering the recent news that known pedophiles aren't being sent to prison, what are the odds that spammers end up in the slammer?
IANAB (I am not a Brit), but wouldn't that be "gaoling" them?
-1: flamebait should really be -1: inciteful
Like your humour
but the uk's information commissioners office is far too lame to do anything about it. - explain why evil empire Microsoft sued the Milton Keynes spammer ,and not the civil service.
Blair and Bush masters of FUD '15 - minutes before you die'. Final thought: Imformation commisioners office (UK) could not party in brewery.
...BadAnalogyGuy, is that you?
... because C++ programmers make "friends" solely for the purpose of exposing their "private" parts to them.
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
what about all this junk mail i get in my actual mailbox every day? sure spam is annoying, however this physical mail is just as annoying, if not more since i can't just "delete" these credit card offers (half of which spell my name the same horrible spelling so i know they're selling that name around like crazy) but the government lets that slide since they are making money off of it. they dont make money off of e-mails flying around. why not do something about this REAL junk mail that's actually a harm to our physical environment?
The UK government has recently instructed magistrates and judges not to jail non-violent offenders where possible, due to lack of space in the countries' already crowded prisons.
While the threat of jail is still there, the chances of anyone actually getting a custodial sentence for such crimes is virtually non-existant, when even major crime gets punished with fines and community service.
So, yet another UK law that looks good on paper, but will be as effective as the USA CAN-SPAM laws.
...Our prisons are so crowded with potheads we're making room by releasing murderers and rapists early.
Maybe the penalty should have been 10x the amount you earned selling the data... That way you discourage the behavior (forfeiture of all profits times 10) while not wasting prison space that needs to be saved to protect the rest of us from violent offenders.
Who did what now?
Oh, and in regards to the spam, what you just described sounds a lot like the information privacy act in Australia.
How we know is more important than what we know.
it's about damn time someone took a stand. i agree, we need something like this in the states, the problem is that we already have plenty of laws to enforce, but no one does. the u s government has a top ten "letterman" list of the main 10 companies that put out most (let me emphasize MOST) of the spam. that list has names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
we get the government we deserve because we elect them. think about your republican or democratic elected officials the next time you check your inbox.
we just need a few more "russian spam king" incidents if you ask me.
here is the most discussion of this topic
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Depends on how you measure it. Your phrasing makes it seem obvious (hence you 5). But what if I say that spam costs the US 10's billions in lost time every year, and oh let me ad that for 50 dollars a year you can save someone starving in bangladesh (or wherever you like to be frank). Reducing the size of the global or national economic pie _does_ kill people, just not as directly. Remember, the only reason our life expectancies are so high here are because we have the money to pay for crap like antibiotics and transplants and life support machines etc etc. Money is important.
Whether jailing people that contribute to it in this way is right, well that's another debate entirely. Just wanted to point out that spam is something to be pretty upset about, even if inconvenience itself doesn't upset you.
Cheers.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
In a perfect world spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with too many men who have enlarged their penises, taken viagra and are looking for a new relationship...
If nothing else, at least one thing you can say about rapists is that they are not as lazy as spammers, and that should really be considered when coming up with sentences for them.
What? I hope there's a typo in there, I really do.
The amount of spam I now get from UK companies who follow the Britney excuse ("Oops, I did it again") to avoid fines is rediculous - it shows clearly Data Protection laws have absolutely nil effect.
I'm about to formally report one of them to both the Information Commissioner and the FSA because I now have a track record of 3 violations + cancellations - and I'll see this one through. One of these f*ckers as example is better than 10 complaints which they ignore anyway.
You know who you are - your number is up. This time I'm coming after you.
If the UK is already releasing kiddie pornsters to the street instead of sending them to jail because the jails are already full -- what chance do you think any spam-facilitator is ever going to see the inside of a cell?
Yeah, thing is, "expression" means "results in a change in the phenotype", so clearly introns express something, just not proteins. By definition, an intron is the parts of DNA fragment which is spliced out before the parts that are not spliced out are translated into a protein.
How we know is more important than what we know.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
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