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Spammer Robert Soloway Arrested

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-should-fix-it dept.

Mike writes "Yahoo is reporting that US prosecutors captured Robert Soloway, a prolific Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him "Spam King." Soloway was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. Soloway is accused of using botnets to disguise where e-mail originated and of forging return addresses of real people or businesses for his mass mailings. If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars."

62 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. give hima real punishment... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..... make him delete all the spam emails he sent out, individually.

    1. Re:give hima real punishment... by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Funny

      While that might satisfy our need for revenge as individuals, as a society aren't we suppose to seek the rehabilitation of criminals such as Robert Soloway? If so, I doubt very much punishing him in such a manner would rehabilitate him. It would simply urge him not to get caught next time, although it is of course quite impossible for him to do it hence the silly moderation. Although I imagine many people are thinking "Yeah! We should do that! Really make him suffer!" I think we need more behaviour modification specialists (including psychiatrists) over the simple cry for vengence when we make laws against spamming. Otherwise we simply get laws that say a spammer should be put in jail for 65 years rather then laws which actually seek to rehabilitate the spammer.

    2. Re:give hima real punishment... by giorgiofr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Rehabilitate him, you say. Is he ill? Is he handicapped? Is he being manipulated? No. He made his choices and got caught. Now it's *retribution time*. Yeah, revenge. Criminals commit crimes deliberately, I don't see why we should assume that they are somehow to be "saved", saved by what I ask? Their own decisions? I lead a somewhat free life just like they do, they have always had a choice, they chose to commit crimes, and now they get caught and suddenly it's "think of the criminals" time? No way. Rehabilitation works for people who *care* about social acceptance. This kind of people obviously do not care.
      However I believe that spamming should not be a crime. In the grand scheme of things... robbing someone is much worse.

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    3. Re:give hima real punishment... by smilindog2000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are more issues here than rehabilitating the spammer. The world needs to know that the US is serious about stopping spam, and a serious sentence will be required as a deterrent. 65 years seems excessive, but this guy needs to do some real time, if not for himself, but to stop others who would follow in his path.

      --
      Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.
    4. Re:give hima real punishment... by giorgiofr · · Score: 2

      Criminals, as opposed to e.g. children or bullies

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    5. Re:give hima real punishment... by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      However I believe that spamming should not be a crime. In the grand scheme of things... robbing someone is much worse. You had my mod points coming your way, right up until that last sentence. His actions have no doubt cost countless people around the world significant amounts of time, money and resources (bandwidth bills, cost of wages paid to clean up infected machines, additional infrastructure to cope with increased mail volume, etc. etc.). The only real difference is that he is "robbing" many people instead of one... OK he's not committing physical assault, but he is effectively trespassing electronically.

      Bad analogy time (hey, this is Slashdot, after all...) - he's not breaking into your house and stealing all the electrical goods to sell at the local pawn shop. Instead, he's breaking into every single house in the whole neighbourhood while the owners are away at work, and using all the bedrooms to run his own private brothel, and then leaving the owners to clean up the mess.

      Maybe his actions sit somewhere between robbery and fraud, but either way they are still most definitely criminal IMHO. Simply spamming (in the literal meaning of the word - "sending unsolicited email") should be a misdemeanor depending entirely on the volume of spam sent, and whether any of the email headers are fraudulent. Bot-farming, however, should be a felony.
    6. Re:give hima real punishment... by tacocat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Holy Crap you're a bleeding heart pussy!!!

      Rehabilitation works only if there's remorse for a crime. The only thing he is aware of is the $$$ he makes. If he had to delete 20 billion spam then he might start getting a clue of just how much of a pain in the ass he is for doing his business the way he has. I would go further in that he should also be held accountable for the format/install of all those owned machines out there. And on top of that he's probably also responsible for a lot of people buying new computers under the false impression that they need to get a new one because the old one is slow. It's only slow because of his doings.

      I have no interest in rehabilitation unless someone actually shows a sense of regret and remorse for their crimes. And even then there's a question of being real or just playing the therapists.

      I do hope that if he's convicted that they have the sense to toss everything they have at him.

    7. Re:give hima real punishment... by rjshields · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Spamming is effectively robbing people of little bits of time and other resources, so it's kind of like stealing but spread over millions of people instead of a single victim.

      --
      In this world nothing is certain but death, taxes and flawed car analogies.
    8. Re:give hima real punishment... by tacocat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If I had mod points today I would give them to you...

      spam will never go away, it's a multi billion dollar industry and people actually buy this stuff. So there's a very strong business case to keep it around. Capitalism...

      The process of sending unsolicited email may or may not be something you can criminalize if the sender is accurately representing themselves in the email. However, the process of not removing someone from a mailing list upon their request can be considered harassment. I don't know if harassment is a misdemeanor or a felony. Probably depends on the degree. I'll assume for now it is not a felony.

      But doing this under snake oil pretenses is a criminal intent. You hide your true identify by forge mail headers and trespassing onto other peoples computers.

      The forgery should be treated as just exactly that -- forgery. I think this is considered a felony.

      The invasion of someone elses computer should be treated as breaking and entering or theft. The economic value of the theft should be calculated on the cost of the machine being stolen. This would push most actions out of small claims/misdemeanors into felony court. So this too is a felony.

      So there you have it, based on previously existing law. Spam is legal if accurately represented. Continuing to send Spam is a misdemeanor. Sending spam as a misrepresentation of yourself or through resources you do not have permission to use, is a felony. Is that so hard to work with?

    9. Re:give hima real punishment... by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Informative

      Who? Criminals or spammers? Because your post appears to make no distinction.

      Care to explain the difference?

      When someone robs the purse of one person, he's a criminal. He made the life of one single person miserable, once.
      When someone constantly makes the life of millions of people miserable, he should be at the very least as much a criminal.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:give hima real punishment... by giorgiofr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Spam obviously *annoys* you, so you spend on appropriate countermeasures. Subtraction of, say, a notebook damages you. A knife in your body tends to kill you. The first "damage" is self-inflicted, the other ones are not. So, spam is not theft. By that logic, noisy cars in the road are stealing my time and money, because I choose to install thicker windows.

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    11. Re:give hima real punishment... by Aliriza · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But there are more evil crimes than this one and we are shouting and throwing rocks to only these ones.Imo the autorities have the strenght to stop spam if they want to but how will they send their so called "newsletters". Spamming is bad but 65 years seams way to high.

    12. Re:give hima real punishment... by GreyPoopon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When someone constantly makes the life of millions of people miserable, he should be at the very least as much a criminal.

      And more importantly, we should ask ourselves: What is the purpose of spam? It's to separate people from their money (either by selling something, by identity theft, or by fraud). Identity theft is actually worse than a one-time robbery. Fraud would be the same as robbing someone. The only case that couldn't be consider the same as or worse than robbery is the marketing of a legitimate item. Unfortunately, if you look at the techniques used by spammers to bypass spam filters and those market their wares on people who are clearly not interested, you have to assume that the product they are marketing is not worth a dime. In my book, tricking someone into buying something that isn't worth the money is the same as robbery. And for the spammer, it's not just one robbery. It's robbing everybody who "bites" the hook.


      Consider the fact that the spammer *knows* that it's a crime (otherwise there would be little attempt to hide the origin of email). The spammer *knows* that almost nobody on his list wants to receive the email (otherwise there would be no need to use a botnet to bypass spam filters). The spammer *knows* (or ought to know) that it's illegal to compromise somebody's computer and use it against their will. So you have here a person who knows that it's illegal and socially unacceptable to do what they are doing, and that there will be severe punishment if they get caught. Yet despite the fact that they could count their winnings and move on, they continue to follow the path of a criminal.

      --

      GreyPoopon
      --
      Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

    13. Re:give hima real punishment... by DrLov3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This maybe off topic but I think there is something seriously wrong in the US with the punishment they give to prisonners,
      I mean, you get arrested for DUI(crime in which you put other lives at risk and you get a 23 days sentence) but for a non-violent, non-life threatning crime such and identity theft and spamming(the action of sending lots of emails(GOTO 10, you know, can't live without it)) you get 65 years + a fine.
      Some law makers aren't thinking. On that note, I wish to recommend a more appropriate sentence : 65 years of first line tech support :P (I meant that for Paris Hilton by the way)

      -Hi, you have reached comcast tech support, my name is Paris, how can I help you?
      -Hi m'am, the internet no work no more.
      -OMG, what are we gonna do, like OMG, I'm so hot but people aren't gonna know no more z'OMG ...

    14. Re:give hima real punishment... by acvh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      well, I don't lose sleep at night worrying about spam. Yes, it's an annoyance. But is it on the level of rape and murder? No.

      shit like this is why we have a huge prison population. there ARE other means of punishing this guy than locking him up for life (which I doubt will happen anyway). sentence him to work on antispam measures, sentence him to be a teacher in an inner city school, make him work it off.

    15. Re:give hima real punishment... by griffjon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Y'know, I'm all for rehab - but I agree with parent poster, I don't see the point for white-collar financial crimes. You want to rehabilitate the Enron fuckups? Spammers? It's not like they were born in a gang-violence dominated neighborhood with massive social obstacles to overcome and make ends meet and need job training, these are well-educated, well-supported "members" of society who are making money hand over foot at the cost of millions of others. I think a bit of punishment[1] is in order, and then probation - like never being able to touch a computer again. Hell, he can become a computer security consultant to anti-spam companies and make millions again, as long as he stops spamming.

      [1] I predict we'll see a drop off in pen1s 3nlargement!!1! emails after he spends some time in the prison showers...

      --
      Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
    16. Re:give hima real punishment... by murphyje · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So, go pull a Superman III and start stealing fractions of cents from financial transactions. Clearly that can't be a crime because it's only annoying people. I mean, if I only steal half a cent from a hundred million people, what harm is there? A million dollars worth of harm, that's what. The effect on individuals is immaterial. Our laws don't go after how much you harmed one person. They go after how much harm you've done. If you walk around town with a can of spray paint and decorate a thousand mailboxes with a red dot, is that somehow less harmful than painting five mailboxes red? This is still just an annoyance. You're not going to suddenly stop getting your TV Guide subscription just because you have a red dot on your mailbox. The damage, however, is equated to the cost of a thousand mailboxes which would translate to about a hundred thousand dollars. No, not everybody will feel compelled to replace their mailbox right away. Every one of the houses, however, will be sold someday and the folks selling the houses will have to replace the spray painted mailboxes. The fact is, this particular spammer has more than likely cased damages far in excess of $250,000 and the specific charges against him must clearly be worth the 65 years projected incarceration.

    17. Re:give hima real punishment... by Skynyrd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Spam obviously *annoys* you, so you spend on appropriate countermeasures. Subtraction of, say, a notebook damages you. A knife in your body tends to kill you. The first "damage" is self-inflicted, the other ones are not. So, spam is not theft. By that logic, noisy cars in the road are stealing my time and money, because I choose to install thicker windows.

      I have a graphic heavy website (Gallery 1.x based). Most of my traffic is bots crawling the site and leaving comment spam. Just an annoyance? My bandwidth bills have gone up because my traffic has gone up by a factor of five in the last year. I have recently started hitting my quota, and now it costs me extra each month.

      Obviously I need to find the time to upgrade the site and use some sort of CAPTCHA to keep the spammers at bay.

      You call it an annoyance, but it takes money from my pocket. It's clearly theft and needs to be punished as theft.

    18. Re:give hima real punishment... by Kelbear · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Let's just be fair and penalize him for the amount of time that he's cost each person. Let's say a spam mail takes .2 seconds to delete. Hell, let's waive the cost in time and money for the development of anti-spam measures. Let's just keep it to .2 seconds per e-mail. Given the volume of time he's wasted, he's earned it all.

    19. Re:give hima real punishment... by amuro98 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Spam is tresspassing, fraud (on several different levels), theft, among other things.

      This bozo has been spamming millions of messages a day, every day, for several years.

      Sure, you could argue he's done nothing worse than maybe stealing a penny here, a penny there. However millions of pennies quickly adds up to several tens of thousands of dollars.

      That doesn't include the countless hours people have spent manually deleting any spam that makes it through whatever filtering system they're using, the cost of the filter itself (some corps have easily spent $100k+ on their email filtering hardware/software)

      Furthermore, it's not as if this bozo doesn't know his garbage is unwanted. Why else would he, and the other scum like him, spend so much time devising ways to defeat the filters and get his ads through? Hash busters, image-spam, haywyre encoded javascript, are just a few techniques that were clearly developed to slip through the filters and into users' email boxes.

      65 years? Sounds about right to me. Knowing our screwy legal system, he'll probably end up barely spending 1 year in prison due to good behavior anyways.

    20. Re:give hima real punishment... by amuro98 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Lack of countermeasures does not imply permission.

      Do you have bars on your windows? No? Then it must be OK for me to break into your house. After all, I'm not commiting a crime here, otherwise you would have put appropriate countermeasures in place, right?

      Oh, and excessive noise IS considered a crime. Don't believe me? Invite your local death metal band over to your place for an unbridled jam session at 3am, and see what your neighbors do. Well, it IS their fault after all. They could have installed better sound proofing on their houses, right?

      Yeah...spoken like a true spammer.

    21. Re:give hima real punishment... by Ed_Pinkley · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here are some fuzzy numbers from google / wiki.
      1) He was sending 20 million emails over 15 days. Let's call that 1 million emails per day.
      2) He was doing this since 2003. Let's call that 3 years.
      3) 3 Years * 365 Days * 1 million emails per day is 1,095,000,000 emails.
      4) Some spam emails are obvious and some are not. Lets say it takes you, on average, 5 seconds additional time to detect and delete a spam email. That's 5,475,000,000 seconds he has cost people.
      5) 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours, 365.25 days = 173 years.
      6) That doesn't include cpu cycles waisted or law enforcement costs. That's 2+ lifetimes. *just in wasted time*.

      Even if I am off by an order of magnitude. I'm ok with years of prison. (I'm also ok with higher penalties for drunk driving, but that's another story.)

      --
      "Long time listener, first time caller."
    22. Re:give hima real punishment... by photomonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Like the 'real' sentences have stopped drug use and abuse as well as trafficking?

      The US imprisons more people than the vast majority of the world's countries.

      Nevermind the fact that it can cost us more to imprison someone than the monetary value of the damage he did.

      --
      Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
    23. Re:give hima real punishment... by photomonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not the best argument. I'm a technology-oriented person and am in very good shape. In fact, I'm a state boxing champ. So not all nerds are pasty, 98-pound weaklings.

      Second, there is probably tremendous profit potential in dealing in spam. If there weren't, people like this wouldn't do it. What's six months or a few uncomfortable years in prison if you come out rich, and with rights to the TV movie and book?

      Finally, you get someone who's already a criminal, and a pretty smart one at that, and throw him in the general population with other criminals. What do you think they're going to talk about there while he festers? Probably one of two things: Jesus or crime, and more probably talk about crime. Prison is like crime college featuring taxpayer-paid tuition, room and board.

      Prison should be reserved for those who are out to physically harm others and cannot be loose. We should use community service and other society-beneficial practices to punish and rehabilitate those that commit nonviolent crimes.

      --
      Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
    24. Re:give hima real punishment... by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it doesn't matter because it is split between millions of people.

      So, is insurance fraud OK with you, too? I mean, the money is stolen from all the policy holders, so if someone steals a million bucks then each person affected only pays a buck, right?

      The idea that a crime is diminished because it affects millions of people is asinine.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  2. Is 65 years excessive? by lib3rtarian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't decide, what do people think, 65 years is basically a life sentence. Is that excessive?

    1. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Delirium+Tremens · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It is not excessive. The guy is a world-wide nuisance with direct and indirect impact on communication efficiency, economy and personal health (stress, anger, you name it).

    2. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by AltGrendel · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Not really.
      • He will probably appeal.
      • He'll say that the sentence is excessive and get it reduced.
      • There's always time off for good behavior.
      • What would be worse is if he's sentenced to have nothing to do with computers in any way, at all, ever.
      --
      The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

      - Douglas Adams

    3. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think that sentence for all charges not just spamming: identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. So if you add them all up, 65 years is probably right.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    4. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Is that excessive?


      Nope, not in the least. When you consider that he took over people's machines, used those machines to scam people, took their money and laundered it for his own use and forged other people's email addresses for the return addresses on his emails, thus having innocent people harassed, 65 years is a good start.

      Solitary confinement with him only able to be out three hours a day would be a good thing. In fact, use his money the government wants to confiscate to pay for his incarceration. That way the taxpayers don't have to foot to the bill for this asshat.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    5. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I apply a very simple test: "What does the average murderer/rapist/pedophile get when convicted?" If the answer is less then the person in question I ask "What's worse, what this person did or what they did?" If murder, rape and pedophilia are worse, then I say either those crimes need to have harsher sentences or this is way too excessive. The trick is, do you decrease what spammers get or increase what murderers, rapists and pedophiles get?

    6. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      apply a very simple test: "What does the average murderer/rapist/pedophile get when convicted?" If the answer is less then the person in question I ask "What's worse, what this person did or what they did?"
      You have to be careful because murder/rape/pedophilia is directed at one or a few victims. Spamming is a distributed crime. Each individual victim may have suffered less, but the aggregate damage may be much more.

      Is there a difference between stealing $50,000 from a bank, and stealing 1 cent from each of 5 million of the bank's customers? It's the same amount of money, and the same people are going to absorb the cost. But for some reason people think "1 cent per person isn't that much" and decide to let the spammer off easy. Just because the crime is distributed across many victims doesn't make it any less of a crime.

    7. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So all those things aggregated is worse then a single life is it? Wow. I'm sure glad I don't live in your world.

    8. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by SkunkPussy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Noone died, noone was physically threatened, noone felt fearful.

      Yes millions have people have been inconvenienced, and yes phenomenal amounts of bandwidth have been wasted (the costs of this have been mostly incurred by victims of the spammer).This is a white collar crime.

      The spammer is not a danger to society, just a pain in the arse so an appropriate punishment is a small prison sentence, coupled with a phenomenal fine - e.g. 10 million dollars.

      --
      SURELY NOT!!!!!
    9. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Gospodin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Whoever this Mr. Noone is, he really sounds like the victim here.

      --
      ...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
    10. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by maxume · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You also have to be careful that you don't over estimate the damages. I would estimate that spam has damaged me to the extent of about $11 over the last five years. I would be satisfied if any individual responsible for more than $0.25 of that had to do a jumping jack, and any individual responsible for more than $2 of it had to do a somersault. Of course, with a billion of us getting spam, some of those guys are going to end up tired and dizzy.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    11. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Intron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't value your own time very highly, then. Personally, I charge $75/hour for consulting. If I spend a 10 minutes per week deleting spam and updating mail filtering software, that's $12 right there.

      Multiply that by 1 million people and you get an idea of the real damages due to this guy.

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
    12. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Informative
      Actually, believe it or not, despite all the fear-mongering of politicians, MANY criminals have been able to reform their lives and become good citizens. I worked in a juvenile facility and saw many kids convicted of the most heinous crimes go on to become normal citizens.

      The reason most criminals are never rehabilitated (at least in the U.S.) is because most prisons (especially adult ones) don't even try--because they have lazy "they can't BE rehabilitated" attitudes very much like yours. This is a real tragedy for society too, because 95%+ of the prisoners in any given prison will be coming out one day.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    13. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The spammer is not a danger to society, just a pain in the arse so an appropriate punishment is a small prison sentence, coupled with a phenomenal fine - e.g. 10 million dollars.

      So if you're a rich, successful criminal, you should get off very lightly? $10 million may be a lot to thee and me, but is it to him?
      And if he doesn't have $10 million, well, you can't get blood from a stone.

    14. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by amber_of_luxor · · Score: 2, Informative

      >as spamming is not a crime in the USA

      In Washington State it is a civil offense. Statutory damages are $500 per spam sent.

      The kicker is you have to either find a judge who knows that, or else is willing to take the time to learn the nuances of the anti-spam law in Washington State. Most judges in Washington State do not believe that spam is a civil offense, even after the relevant statute has been quoted in full in the complaint.

      Amber

      --
      Wind Beneath Thy Wings
    15. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're so negative. Why not call it a hands-on experience for trying how all that herbal viagra and penis enlargement works.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    16. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Interesting. What was the recidivism rate at your facility? The one I worked at (for violent youths) kept theirs low by only tracking the patients for sixth months after treatment.

  3. Well, it's a start. by AltGrendel · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Only a couple of... oh, lets say... thousand "Spam Kings" to go.

    Minimum.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

  4. Thank Goodness by ReidMaynard · · Score: 5, Funny

    Todo List:
    [x] Eliminate SPAM From Internet
    [ ] Bring peace to Middle East
    [ ] Make $1,000,000,000

    That's one less thing for me to do now...

    --
    -- www.globaltics.net

    Political discussion for a new world

    1. Re:Thank Goodness by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can help you with that last one. You see, my uncle died recently and he was really rich, but I'm having some trouble getting the money out of the country..............

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  5. More on Soloway.. by Dynamoo · · Score: 5, Informative
    Soloway also has close ties to other arch-spammers Alex Polyakov and Leo Kuvayev. Between those three there is a substantial involvement in fraud, money laundering and even child pornography. It's hard to say who is responsible for what.. but I betcha that the Russians are running scared that Soloway will really start to talk. I've documented this connection a couple of times in the past (see here and here.)

    There's plenty of evidence around to nail Soloway for a long, long time.. but to be honest he's not even the worst spammer out there. I suspect the possibility of a plea bargain is quite likely, so that international law enforcement can get to the even bigger fish.

    --
    Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
  6. Sweet. I propose another arrest. by wazzzup · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Can we then arrest someone at Microsoft who was responsible for making it so easy to create bots? In my opinion, Windows (and thus Microsoft) is an equal partner in the generation of spam we get today.

    I'm kidding about the arrest part but it sure would be nice if Microsoft was called into the spotlight and at least publicly embarrassed for it's key role in spam production. Enough so that even my mom and dad (who think Windows is great) understand the malfeasance done by Windows' pathetic security record.

  7. Now I'll buy penis enlargement pills... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    and send them to his jail mates.

  8. I hate spam as much as the next guy, but... by N3wsByt3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    *65* years? That seems way over the top. Why can't laws just reflect some reason in the usa?

    Yes, sure...he did more then just spam. But even murderers often come off with less then 65 years, so is spam, impersonating people, using botnets, etc. *really* worse than murdering people?

    People should get a grip.

    I'm all for laws against spam and all the rest of it, but hell, 5 years + a considerable fine is more than enough.

    --
    --- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
    1. Re:I hate spam as much as the next guy, but... by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I hate that arguement.

      The problem isn't that the punishment for non-murder crimes is too high, it's that all too often murderers get off without a life imprisonment or capital punishment. Especially if they manage to wheel and deal their way down to manslaughter or something similar.

      --
      The World's Worst Webcomic!
    2. Re:I hate spam as much as the next guy, but... by ps236 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      But, this was no way a 'one off' crime, done in the heat of passion etc.

      His crimes were well planned, and considered and over an extended period of time. He explicitly chose to do them.

      They affected millions of people. OK, maybe it's difficult to quantify the damage, but if you think how much time, money and effort has been spent on fighting people like him (all those spam filter programs written and bought). There's also all the extra bandwidth used which has probably increased the costs of internet access for everyone to compensate. Never mind all the resources (electricity, time, Internet fees) that he stole from the people unwittingly on his botnets. Then there's the fraudulent nature of much of the spam as well.

      If anything, I think the fine should be in the millions or tens of millions rather than quarter of a million, and possibly 30-40 years in prison, but it does need to be considerable. This wasn't just someone who misguidedly sent out a few spam messages one weekend - it's a calculating career spammer, fraudster and computer hijacker.

      If nothing else, he should be used as an example, and he's got no-one else to blame but himself for it.

      I have far more sympathy for someone who killed someone in a 'crime of passion' than for this man!

    3. Re:I hate spam as much as the next guy, but... by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Informative

      "*65* years? That seems way over the top. Why can't laws just reflect some reason in the usa?"

      "Reason?" What if I told you that his actions single-handedly required an extra 65 man-years to fix? Certainly not far-fetched: that's about 3 minutes for 10 million people, erasing spam, updating filters, installing firewalls, reinstalling the operating system, and that's before we get into the felonies he's charged with, such as wire fraud. And what about the hours worked by his victims to pay for the new security software they need?

      He's easily caused 65 man-years of life to be wasted cleaning up problems he deliberately caused in an effort to profit off of it. What rational reason is there that he himself should not be subjected to the same loss of his finite time on this planet?

  9. Re:A crime? by simong · · Score: 3, Informative

    In this case it's about the illegal use of resources - botnets work by hacking PCs and using them to send mail via their Internet connections, which in most countries would be punishable under their equivalent of the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act (actually I think the 2006 revision changed that, but the principle is still there) irrespective of the content in the spam. Also, the vast percentage of spam promotes illegal or semi-illegal products or is a front for scams. Yes, anyone who responds to spam is a fool, but in the end, if they're conned out of anything than a crime has been committed somewhere.

  10. Soloway Mocks MS Suit - Will he mock again? by newsact · · Score: 5, Informative
    Spamhaus Project has a rather long list of Soloway's recorded history. He mocks every attempt to nail him such us the lawsuit from Microsoft http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso _id=ROK5164 We will probably do the same again...

    "I've been in business for over 10 years with the best accountants in the world, and lawyers in all 50 states that know how to run my business legally and protect me from all lawsuits that come my way.. not a concern.. I just pay them a few hours of my work and they take care of the entire cases for me..."
  11. Get real, people by djupedal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every single person here has been affected by this guy - some more than others, but all negatively. This is not the time to turn the other cheek, because every time you deleted one of his emails, you were doing just that.

    Now is the time for him to get the short/pointy end of the stick...the stick that he sharpened and used on all of us. He took time away from each of us that we will never get back. Talking about fair this or fair that in terms of years behind bars....are you serious? Wake up. This guy leached your life and given the opportunity, he would not hesitate to do it again.

    It is only fair to take his time away from him until he has no more.

  12. Anyone else think we have our priorities mixed? by StringBlade · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars.

    However, if you infringe on someone's copyright in the U.S. then your maximum fine is $250,000 per infringement not to mention a possible 5 year jail sentence as well.

    Clearly spam's a problem, but not as big of a problem as Napster and Limewire - after all, the Spam King was making money and Napster was just giving away music!

    Lesson: If you're going to be a nuisance to people and corporations, make sure you make lots of money doing it so your punishment isn't as severe for proving you're a good capitalistic American.

    --
    ...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
  13. Sentence is too severe. by Lethyos · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hate spam as much as the next guy. That being said, 65 years in jail and a quarter million in fines (even assuming he gets half of that) is just too much. This is the sort of sentence you should impose on murderers, not electronic irritants who use a system designed specifically to allow anyone to said pretty much anything to whoever they please. In short: hurt him, but not too much.

    --
    Why bother.
  14. Food code by xororand · · Score: 2, Funny

    I suggest that he should get a good bunch of artifical spam mails everyday while only one of it contains the code for the daily meals. Thus he would experience what it's like to get V1AG|)_A and 03M Software offers every day ;)

  15. Proportion by syylk · · Score: 2, Informative

    To whoever thinks that 65 years is a bit too much:

    Think about time.

    Think about the time you spend/spent 1) deleting spam, 2) writing rules to filter spam, 3) learning, writing, installing, configuring bayesian apps.

    Add to that the time spent by your POP/IMAP/SMTP/Exchange server to receive spam and forward it to you the one that passed thru the aforementioned filters.

    Think about the total time you spent dealing with spam, in one form or another.

    Then multiply that time for all the people on Earth that face the same problem as you do - from simple users to ISP admins - and have to think and implement solutions - from "ignore and delete" to complex auto-training systems.

    65 years suddenly appear a shard of a split second, compared to the total wasted time.

  16. A Punishment to Fit the Crime? by GaryPatterson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Bear with me for a bit...

    Every time a spam message gets through my filters, I suffer a brief twinge of irritation. I've been receiving spam in varying amounts since the mid-90s, and I wonder what the cumulative effect of all those little irritants would be.

    I also wonder what the cumulative effect of the millions of people he spammed having those little irritations over the years would be. Spread over millions of people and several years it may not seem so bad, but the cumulative effect is that a wave of minor negativity washes over the planet when people like this guy send out spam. Sure it's not the great symbol odegra in a road system, but it's another thing that brings the general happiness of the planet down a jot.

    Maybe the punishment should factor in the number of people he spammed, as a multiplier. Not one to one, but some multiplier.

    It's probably a terrible idea, but then I'd extend anti-spam legislation to all advertising forms if I could. Billboards jostling for that last square centimetre of space seem just as bad as emails written by the mental giants who think that mis-spelling erectile drugs will make me more likely to buy them.

  17. Why not a RICO prosecution? by swb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If there's that much organization involved, why not a RICO prosecution?

    I'm always surprised that they go after these so-called "spam kings" as if they were committing their crimes in a vacuum without the help of other people or other institutions.

    As much as spam seems linked to a much larger world of theft, fraud, money laundering, stock manipulation, and more well-known organized crime I would think that a RICO investigation would be a big help.

    I would also think it would go a long way towards ending the tacit involvement of the legitimate financial and IT community in spam if a few well-placed execs in those industries got nailed along with the rest of them.

  18. If Spam is illegal then the Post Office should... by Lorin+Partain · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If sending unsolicited mail to someone is illegal, then the Government's monopoly on first class postal services (aka the US Post Office) should be indicted immediately !! So typical for government prosecutors to go after a guy making a living because what he does is unpopular, yet they reserve the right to fill my mail box full with totally worthless and unwanted (paper wasting as well) real world spam. If the State can't get its own house in order they got no business going after private citizens for the same crime they commit on a daily basis all over American. Oh wait i forget the laws don't apply to politicians or government sacred cows like the Post Office, just you and me, and innovative young men who fulfill a service that is evidently quite in demand and a very profitable business. Now if he has committed some kind of genuine fraud well then fine, he should go to jail for it, but if all this guy has done is send e-mail to people who did not "opt in" well tell me how i can Opt-out of the government monopoly mail service that keeps taking up so much room in my trash can ?