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Jack Thompson Spams Utah Senate, May Face Legal Action
eldavojohn writes "Yesterday, GamePolitics ran an interesting story about the Utah Senate President threatening Jack Thompson with the CAN-SPAM Act. You might recall Utah being Jack's last hope and hold-out after being disbarred in Florida and more or less made a mockery everywhere else. Well, from Utah's Senate Site, we get the picture of what Jack is up to now: spamming his last friends on the planet. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting on Senate President Michael Waddoups' statements: 'I asked you before to remove me from your mailing list. I supported your bill but because of the harassment will not again. If I am not removed, I will turn you over to the AG for legal action.' The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Waddoups confirmed on Tuesday that he would attempt to pursue legal action under the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 against Jack Thompson."
We used to think that Thompson was lower than a spammer, but we're not so sure nowadays...
Per subject: it's guys like Jack Thompson who give lawyers a bad name.
He has lost his mission, he has lost his friends, and what does he do---piss away the last he had.
Truly this is the time to quote Leia: the more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.
Soon, all Jack will have left is an empty clenched fist, which he will be free to wave at anyone passing by his soap box.
May it be put on a deserted island.
Now, let's all play a game with tits and guns! :D
This is just more proof that Jack Thompson, much like Steve Balmer, was put on this earth to be an infinite source of entertainment. As long as people like Jack try to attack violent video games and remove them from the shelves, they will never succeed. His tactics of idiocy and harassment don't seem to work.
I wonder if anybody has ever pointed him to /. and everybody who hates him...
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Why couldn't he have given us some warning before doing that?
Now we have to arrange for confetti and parade floats and marching bands all on short notice!
Does he have any idea how hard it is to get a 500ft Master Chief balloon in just a couple days?
Technoli
IIRC CAN-SPAM (might as well just add some words to the name and call it the CAN-HAS-SPAM act, but whatever) makes specific exemptions for political advertisements and solicitations by nonprofits, but says nothing about whether the content is commercial or not.
Further, there is no reason why I or my ISP or any other email provider should have to bear the cost of accepting spam. That is pure crap, and arguably theft of services, though obviously IANAL — it might not hold up in court, but I think I can construct a fairly logical argument along those lines.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You have a very interesting point. However, he's petitioning the Utah state government, which he is not a constituent of. Does the 1st apply to just your local/state/national government, or to every local/state government?
Any lawyers around to clarify?
Spam is commercial email. This is email about a pending legislative action, and thus Jack Thompson has the right to send it because he has a right to free speech.
Just to clarify...
Spam is not always commercial email. However, I believe the CAN-SPAM act is only concerned with unsolicited commercial email. So in that sense, you're probably right that the CAN-SPAM act doesn't apply to this case.
As for filters - that's what spammers say. I don't buy the argument. At some point, the harasser will attempt to bypass filters and you end up inducing a cost to keep ahead of the filtering arms race.
These tactics remind me of a trick on how to check out other girls with your significant other present: feigned outrage.
"Wow look at her shes wearing almost nothing at all. Will you look at that top? You can almost see right down her shirt. And look at those pants! They are so tight they show everything. Disgusting isn't it?"
The simple fact is, if you don't like something, the natural human tendency is to stop looking at it.
Meanwhile this guy has played enough GTA to find the lap dance clip and went browsing through the adult section of a gay website to find a picture to include in his legal filings?
I do assume that a court record describes things that actually happened and you should try reading the record of his disbarrment trial.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
It's time to create a new term for the reasoning used by lawyers: lawgic. It's just like logic, except that... well, actually it's nothing like logic; that's why we need a special term.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
This guy isn't a spammer in the typical sense. He's a hack 'lawyer' that's been permanently disbarred in Florida for false statements, disparaging remarks, and humiliating litigants.
He's tried to get music banned due to explicit content, violent video games banned because they incite violence, video games declared as pornography, etc., etc., etc. You know they type. More concerned about everyone else's business rather than minding his own.
He's essentially wants to ensure that everyone else lives to his own moral standards regardless of their beliefs or how they want to raise their children.
He's just a big born-again right wing religious wack job for lack of a better term. This latest spam suit is just his latest 'label' among many.
Hi Jack! Nice of you to join us!
Michael Waddoups should be put in jail. You do have a point here, but I'll go one better. He previously supported Jack's bill, but now because Jack is exercising his right of free speech, however annoyingly, Michael is not going to support the bill. This is not commercial, and it is only unsolicited in the sense that they did not expect it. But of all people lawmakers should be accepting input on pending legislation. Claiming this is SPAM is clearly abuse of the laws they made, and they should know better. Utah State Senate President should absolutely know better.
He is deciding his vote on the personal actions of one of the parties - not whether the bill is good for the people. Better still, he is deciding on his opinion of the actions of one of the parties. He is guilty of not doing his job, which is to represent the people. I read his comments as "You have to go through me, I get to choose the laws."
I don't know which bill this is, and can only assume it's as idiotic as Jack Thompson has proven himself to be. But Michael should not be playing this game in public. I will shut down your bill if I don't like you, regardless of whether it is good for the people.
Truly, there is never a time to quote Leia. Not even on Slashdot. Truly.
I know. Somehow, I've always known.
The enemies of Democracy are
These tactics remind me of a trick on how to check out other girls with your significant other present: feigned outrage.
"Wow look at her shes wearing almost nothing at all. Will you look at that top? You can almost see right down her shirt. And look at those pants! They are so tight they show everything. Disgusting isn't it?"
And that actually worked for you? No offense, but you need to find smarter women to date.
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau