Supreme Court Lets Virginia Anti-Spam Law Die

SpuriousLogic sends in a CNN report that begins "The Supreme Court has passed up a chance to examine how far states can go to restrict unsolicited e-mails in efforts to block spammers from bombarding computer users. The high court without comment Monday rejected Virginia's appeal to keep its Computer Crimes Act in place. It was one of the toughest laws of its kind in the nation, the only one to ban noncommercial — as well as commercial — spam e-mail to consumers in that state. The justices' refusal to intervene also means the conviction of prolific commercial spammer Jeremy Jaynes will not be reinstated." Jaynes remains behind bars because of a federal securities fraud conviction unrelated to the matter of spamming.

Comments

Supreme Court doesn't rule on everything

[BadAnalogyGuy]

The SCOTUS does not take every case that crosses its path. These days, unless there is an important Constitutional interpretation at stake, the Court will typically pass on the case.

Since there really isn't much new in this case (the FA already forbids restriction on TFOS), it's hardly surprising that the SCROTUS decided to let precedent do its job.

No one likes spammers, but this law was clearly in violation of the civil rights of everyone it touched.

Re:Supreme Court doesn't rule on everything

[Hozza]

I wouldn't move to Italy and expect them to have every label in English, (hell, maybe they do, but I doubt it)

Actually, its extremely common to find packaging with multiple languages in Europe. Many will be bilingual and some are even quadlingual.

The business logic is nothing to do with %'s of populations, its all about the flexibility of being able to ship the product to different countries, depending on where there's demand this week.