Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Anti-Spam Law

Skater writes "The Washington Post is reporting that the Virginia Supreme Court has struck down the anti-spam law that was used to convict spammer Jeremy James, on the grounds that the ability to be anonymous was more important than the problem of spam. Strangely, the same court only a few months ago upheld the law. 'The court noted that "were the 'Federalist Papers' just being published today via e-mail, that transmission by Publius would violate the [current Virginia] statute." The court suggested that the law does not limit its restrictions on spam to commercial or fraudulent e-mail, or to unprotected speech such as pornography or defamation. And when the state suggested that the court merely tailor a restriction to the law within its opinion, the court declined.'"

Comments

Re:What's the judges email address?

[russotto]

The decision doesn't merely uphold a right to spam; it upholds the right to spam and make it look like someone else sent it.

No, it doesn't. It upholds the right to send out certain bulk emails anonymously. The legislature wrote a law which prohibited that, along with a whole bunch of other things that perhaps could be permissibly prohibited, but since the law also prohibited things which were a matter of free speech, it was found to be overbroad. The judges also decided it was not within their scope to try to strike down the law only in cases where it was in conflict with the First Amendment (in effect re-writing the law), saying that writing the law properly was the legislature's job.