Convicted US spammer loses appeal in Virginia
A divided Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the nation’s first felony conviction for illegal spamming on Friday, ruling that Virginia’s anti-spamming law does not violate free-speech rights. Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, N.C., considered among the world’s top 10 spammers in 2003, was convicted of massive distribution of junk e-mail and sentenced to nine years in prison. Justice Elizabeth Lacy wrote in a dissent that the law is “unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
“Jaynes allegedly used aliases and false Internet addresses to bombard Web users with junk e-mails peddling sham products and services. The court’s majority said misleading commercial speech is not entitled to First Amendment protection. Prosecutors presented evidence of 53,000 illegal e-mails Jaynes sent over three days in July 2003. But authorities believe he was responsible for spewing 10 million e-mails a day in an enterprise that grossed up to $750,000 per month. Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the e-mails went through an AOL server in Loudoun County, where America Online is based. Too bad the market with spam is controlled mostly by Russian and Ukrainian citizens, who don’t have to fear about being punished as their countries don’t consider spam as a serious problem.
Source: AP
Comments(72)
they should ban the spammers form the internet!
Totally agree, sick and tired of my mailboxes getting filled up with crap spam!
thats a whole lota spam, if we all just deleted it and didnt buy into it, you’d think it’d be a deterant but clearly not. personaly if i could make 750,000 per month i’d give it a red hot go, but i’d come to a point where by i stop.
perhaps just 1 month a year
i get a feeling of euphoria when i delete spam
ive been banned / blacklisted before for spamming a spammer back ( i repeatedly sent his spam back 2 fold, sometimes even 10 times ) . got a message from isp told me to stop, i told them to get there spam shield/blocker working and i would. i kept sending bak and then blamo banned from net. now i am not who they think i am
Nice ruling
9 years in prison for spam? Wtf? I wonder how judges come up with these silly numbers.
@5: interesting approach but there is no reason to spam the spammer back – they always use a hacked machine and fake the sender email address, so your mails ended nowhere, you just icnreased the load on the servers of your isp which might be the reason why the banned you
Too bad that there are no spam laws in Russia and Ukraine ??? Martin, let me ask you, have you been smoking smth lately?
It’s a fckg joke to sentence a man to 9 years in prison because he sent emails, sure it’s annoying, but 9 years ? Take away his earnings from that time, but common…
America… the land of the free… huh ? what’d you say ?… aaah, right, Bush administration… corporations in charge, right, sorry… my bad, should have said: America, the land of the totally screwed. I love the US for many reasons, but it is no longer the land of the free, it’s a police state.
Spammer = Brendan
There is no bigger ***hole in this world than the kind of ***hole who sits around on his fat behind coding the very things that make us all want to punch our screens out in rage. I have to admit, now we have GMail, it’s the popup, malware and virus coders that annoy me more, but hey, they’re all part of the same family and mindset.
That reminds me, the full screen ads on this site that go “LOL!!!!!!” and rob you of the position on the page you were at is infuriating. Stick to banners or something.
That does seem unconstitutional! And WAY too harsh. People get less time for violent crimes. I mean COME ON!!!!
hahaha eff that guy. he made enough money off of being a spamming douchebag, that he deserves the 9 years, and then 5 more of probation, and not being able to use a computer / or be able to connect to the internet in any way.
From the description in the article it suggests fraud offences as well as spam. It maybe the sentence reflects the number of offences committed rather than severity. Mostly I think the problem with spam is not the offenders but the people who view it and respond to it. If there was no profit to be made spam would mostly cease to exist.
He should have robbed people in the street with a gun. He would get less time this way… Come on, nobody likes spam but 9 years is way overboard. He was probably singled out as an example…
@11 I totally agree. AND there’s also ***hole Brendan who is universally credited with Rlslog’s blackest days EVER. Brendan caused thousands of us to download 700MB which we didn’t want. Lied to us THREE times in a TRIPLE bluff to get us to download the 700MB. He then offered a false cure once we were tricked into downloading the 700MB. Joox site even temporarily went down during what our Rlslog community are calling the “Great Brendan Disaster of 08″. Now there’s an ***hole. Brendan – the ALL TIME Releaslog ***hole.
The court mentioned misleading commercial speech. And if he racked in that much per month, he was most certainly convicted of fraud first and spam second
He deserves it. Not that he’ll serve even half of it, you can get parole rather early when you’re not a violent offender or a drug peddler. I believe the court was counting on that and wanted to make him serve more than 6 months actual time
WTF .. OMG !! I don’t like people that do spam but come on that to much time.
Spam isn’t a serious problem
you are getting really mad over a message on the internet?
Growup kiddies
only 9 yrs? should have hanged him
Death to spammers.
Simple, now let’s move on.
9 years, WTf!
Spam pisses everyone off but nine years is absolutely rediculous.
This guy has been sentenced longer than some freakin rapists and most of you think this is reasonable?
@17 I really hope your right about his sentence, for certain he won’t serve it all but even half is too excessive.
It’s a multimillion $ scamming operation. Of course He should get nine years. However that’s not to say Americas Judicial System isn’t cuffed up.
I surprised this guy wasn’t from China!:
Look at where the Chinese are doing to business in USA.
I would ban China but thats because the fact is that 90% of the population who registers on internet programs tend to cheat. Only about 2% of them actually bother investing in any program.. so is it worth it for us having to go spend all the time having to screen each Chinese member and ban them accordingly? To be honest, I’d rather ban an entire country and save myself a lot of time as well as saving a lot of money from being cheated by these people.
Quote#2:
Just hope that you all know, China is China. Asia is Asia. Don’t ban Asia for what China has done. I’m from Singapore and I hate scammers just as much as you do. These Chinese don’t just cheat in ***s programs. They cheat in businesses all around the world.
————————
Freaking Chinese, they should ban China from the internet!
I don’t get it, am I the only one not affected by spam?
Sure, 6/8 years ago it was a problem, but I can count the spam mail I’ve received in the past 2 years with my fingers, it’s not that big of a deal anymore.
The picture used to illustrate this article is copyright protected. The words of the article themselves are copyright protected. I have informed both owners of the copyrighted works, and their legal departments, and urge you at rlslog.net, instead of copying all material used on this website from other sources, to be creative enough to start developing your own content.
After all, no-one likes a tard.
This IS ridiculous, wtf prison for spamming? silly americans
The punishment should fit the crime. (This is stated in the constitution.) So if this guy made money with spam you should fine him. Putting him in jail for such an offense is beyond reason. The fact that the highest court came to this decision is somethimg of a mystery to me and very bothersome.
And you guys should also consider and think about the consequences of this ruling. If they are prepared to give nine years for sending junkmail. What will the next step be. Taking down people like us who download movies or tvshows. Isn’t downloading movies from torrentsites considered stealing.
A ruling like this is something to be very concerned about.
This decline in checks and balances is a serious threat to your freedom in the future.
i think the 9 years arent just for spamming, but the way he sent the spam, maybe using botnets that used rootkit or some kind of viri, common a guy dont send 1 million spam a day from hes pc, he uses others peoples pcs (bandwith + cpu usage + whatever) to send the spam and god nows what else…..quote:
“aynes was accused of utilizing T1 internet connections to send hundreds of thousands of e-mails per day, using e-mail lists later reported stolen from AOL and eBay, amongst others. Spamhaus, a directory of junk e-mailers, estimated that he was the eighth most prolific spammer in the world for the period in question. [2]”
and :
“Jeremy Jaynes attended High School in Baton Rouge, LA. His father was a professor of genetic engineering at LSU. He was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”
:-]
@29 Corto
If you have more info on this case could you give me the link. In the article above it cleary says he is convicted for illegal spamming. The way he did is important,but in essence it doesn’t matter. Spamming is spamming.
I’m with #21. He got away cheap, 9 years is nothing for terrorism.
jizz spatterer GET a life….but it is too late…….I jizz spatterer’d all over your lady’z face….You lAmE…”I have informed both owners of the copyrighted works, and their legal departments”…..blah blah blah……you are a RAT…….. Informant lAmE…….People posting things like that always leave a digital sig. I find this a THREAT….I recommend formating you HD (DoD specz) getting new Motherboard and NIC (Ethernet Card)….Because certain people I have read on other forumz (others not to mention….don’t ask) don’t like what you (yes you and your name and hidden digital sig.) posted and the above THREAT to rlslog.net and memberz……..My recommended step is listed above (complete system re-vamp) and it is the best in your your favor…..pAbLo
@25
im with you, havent recieved spam in who knows how long.
America worrying about spam and not other things. HAHA
9 years seems a bit harsh.
Don’t murderers get like 5 or something? seriously now. WTF?
Virginia is a worthless pos state that makes up their own rules..It seems whatever you do here is different from the rest of the United States…Spamming sucks but 9 years is ridiculous…
Virginia Beach police will give you a ticket if they hear you say a curse word…this is just another way Virginia is taking away our 1st amendment right..FUQ VA
Probably got 9 years because of
…in an enterprise that grossed up to $750,000…
Spam is the most annoying thing ever, but 9 years, get real. Somebody who commits manslaughter is likely to get less, same with rapists, something is seriously wrong in that state. Also these spammers must be making some money, which is why they persist with it, they should name and shame the morons who fall for spam too, because without their stupidity spam would be dead.
During the trial it was revealed that Jaynes had delivered physical junk mail during the 1990s. His e-mail outfit primarily advertised a variety of “work at home” schemes. Of the hundreds of thousands of e-mails he broadcast per day, only an estimated 10-17,000 replied; but with orders of $39.95 per customer, Jaynes may have earned up to $750,000 per month, [4] and amassed a personal fortune estimated at $24 million (unclear as to where this figure originated – court proceedings never established origin), against line rental of $50,000 per month.
Nice to see that the legal system its still as stupid as it can be. 9 years for a spammer, now, a pedophile gets lets, a rapist gets less. Yeah, the US legal system WORKS…..NOT!
http://www.spamfo.co.uk/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,170/Itemid,2/
The internet can manage spam WITHOUT more government involvement. It’s called “spam protection” which either works, or adapts until it works.
To see people happy about more government control really makes me sick. You do realize you are cheering for MORE government control in your life, don’t you???
You want to live in a crib and be bottle-fed the rest of your life, move back in with your mother. Don’t put me in that crib beside you with Big Government watching to make sure we don’t get any boo-boos, (or fall for stupid sales gimmicks found in your in box).
The 9 years sentence isn’t much of a surprise anymore. Murders are sentenced to less, (in fact the majority are never caught and freely walk amongst us). This is the same court system which has sentenced pot smokers caught with one joint to life in prison.
Guess the judge got too many viagra and and enlarge your schlong emails…
It’s quite interesting to see how the “outlaws” on the net gets a real punishment while rapists and murderers gets only a short holiday in the big house, go figure…
Now everybody sing with me, you all know the words:
“AMEERICAAA, F*CK YEAH!!!”
Maybe this is why I went from receiving an average of 40 spams a day to 2 last week. Well, either that or Wanadoo finally sorted their filter.
@41 Thx for the link
So, he was even paying for the bandwidth to send out his mail… Makes the nine years even more rediculous.
At least when he gets out he’ll have a nice pension to live off.
I notice this has devolved into the usual bash America and Americans fest you Euro trash just love to engage in whenever you think you can get away with it. Now we aren’t even permitted the “privilege” of administering justice in our own country without your “wisdom and wit”. Followed, no doubt, by a self-administered pat on your collective virtual backs at how clever and sophisticated a Euro tool is compared to us “provincial” Americans with our crazy system of justice that takes its pound of flesh out of computer hacking thugs.
And all this from people who had to have two world wars where American military might and technology stepped in both times to fend off the hordes of your fellow savages and impose an era of real peace and prosperity. Silly Europeans. Don’t you know we are generally too polite to tell you exactly what we think of you? Well, not today…
Europe is cesspit of self-deluded fools. Even with all your anti-American posturing it is still a well known fact that if an American walked into an anti-American riot in any European city and held up a handful of scholarships to American universities, everyone, including the instigators of the riot, would stop protesting and start singing our praises just so you could get out of your crappy little countries and come to where the action is.
We know you are just jealous posers. So go back to deciding which pair of American made jeans you’re wearing today, which tee shirt with an English slogan across the front, which American movie or TV series you want to watch, which American music you will be listening too and which American fast foods you’ll be scarfing down as you do so and leave off making hypocritical fools of yourselves. Americans laugh at you every day, especially when you are screaming hate at us while wearing an “I Love New York” tee shirt or something equally ludicrous. What a bunch of buffoons!
Actually, Martin, the USA is the #1 spam haven. No one else even comes close. What gives the impression that foreign nations are at top is the fact that many US spammers use rooted machines in other countries due to lax security.
http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso
The 10 Worst Spam Origin Countries As at 02 March 2008
1
United States 1595
2
China 452
3
Russian Federation 271
4
United Kingdom 203
5
South Korea 183
6
Germany 176
7
Japan 158
8
France 148
9
Canada 131
10
Taiwan 124
Wow gavrielle, did you forget to take your meds today?
@48
Attempting to insult me (and failing miserably, btw) won’t change the facts.
@ gavrielle
If you are American, it astounds me that you are able to write 4 quite grammatically correct paragraphs in order to make your point.
You must have gone to school outside the USA, because it is simply not possible for you to be an American and write so eloquently.
May I kindly suggest that you take your ridiculous sentiments, though, and shove them up your a$$.
gavrielle, You seem to be doing a pretty good job of making an idiot of yourself. That’s good enough for me mate
@50
If you are astounded it is probably because you haven’t met many Americans. You certainly don’t have a clue as to what we say about you behind your backs. Therefore, you should pay attention and not assume something is ridiculous or untrue just because you’ve never heard it to your face.
And as for your final statement: In this battle of wits you are ridiculously unarmed. I’m guessing that you must be the product of one of those failed British Comprehensives.
@51
Poor little Euro trash can’t stand it when the crap you dish out comes right back at you. It’s true what they say, you know. All the real men in your countries died fighting, what’s left is the cowardly, self-serving dregs.
Spammers should get the chair
gavrielle is the best! Jealous rage makes Europe stand out. Europe, win a fight of your own for once. The US is not going to back you.
This just looks like the law is put in place to punish those who finally get around to using spam as a mass forum for political dissension, it’s not about advertising spam (which is just being used as an excuse) but about ‘communication’ spam.
Gavrielle,
I am an American. And never did I promote the European’s One-World Union. Your pride in America seems to either rest in the long ago past or the fact the US is still better than everywhere else. These “facts” may be true but, it is a telling story that you must make a comparison to Euro trash to show how good the USA is.
You stated nothing of the “facts” of this story. But you did bother to defend our court system. Well than, I take it you wouldn’t fight your local government when they want to take your land and sell it to a developer to build a casino… that is what the KELO supreme court decision declared to be an imminent domain legal action?
Your fight against Euro-trash may make YOU feel better, but if you don’t wake-up to fight your own government’s rapid spiral down the toilet over the last 20 years, (destroying private property rights in the name of development, environment, drugs, terrorism, etc.), you may soon realize the pond between countries is only a mirror.
@ gavrielle
every US soldier that dies in Iraq and Afghanistan makes me love you more
by the way, the name gavrielle is highly ghey
And yes, foreigners still love America… but it may be because they realize their is an actual difference between Americans and the form of government that has developed under our name. (This country was NOT created to be a Democracy), it was created as a Republic, a Constitutional Republic, (which we have pretty obviously failed to keep).
Cheering on a country whose government has grown to eclipses it citizens isn’t the behavior of a patriotic citizen, but a welfare bottle-fed serf. Welcome aboard, cheerleader, we are Euro-trash bound.
At #8, nobody got sentenced for 9 years for sending emails. He extorted/stole/conned people out of $750,000.00 per month.
How do you feel that 9 years for stealing 3/4 of a million per month is a bit too much? You ask me, he got off pretty good.
It’s not the act as much as the severity of the crime.
@8 and many others “9 years in prison for spam? Wtf? I wonder how judges come up with these silly numbers.”
No he didn’t get 9 years for sending spam.
But at 750,000.00 month of THEFT (these were scams not legitimate business dealings)that makes a theft of 9 MILLION a year. 1 year per one million in THEFT really doesn’t sound that bad.
For those who didn’t comrpehend the article, nobody got sentenced to 9 years for sending spam mail. It was for stealing millions of dollars, not sending out email with a fun offer.
Gavrielle?
“two world wars where American military might and technology stepped in both times to fend off the hordes of your fellow savages and impose an era of real peace and prosperity. ”
Now THAT’s why people think you’re a dummy, you couldn’t be mroe wrong.
WWI was almost resolved when, against allied wishes, America decided to get involved. Thus ultimatelyy extended the war by years. You were also the nation at teh time who refused to take a side, good OR bad, and as a result were supplying Germany and the Allies at the same time. When you were asked to NPOT get involved, you did anyway. READ REAL AND GENUINE HISTORY, NOT THEAMERCIAN VERSIONS. I’ve studied from both sides, the US ones are like Readers Digest condensed versions with all the bad stuff left out to make America look good (no different that teh reports from Iraq though).
As for WWII, Germany turned tail nearly 4 YEARS before D-Day, after being defeated by the Royal Air Force (at that time, combined Canadian, French, some US, Portuguese etc.). They were attacking Western Russia when America became heavily involved.
So take your righteous, “We saved the world from these ungrateful bastards” attitude and bow it out of you uneducated arse.
As for global support, if it wasn’t for UK troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, your own troops would be seeing far mreo casualties. As commented by MOST US troops in Iraq, they are damn glad they have UK support as the UK is taking care of intricate, covert missions that the US simply isn’t trained, equipped or prepared for. When yuo left Afghanistan, you turned over security to the same thugs you were originally protecting the Afghans from, if it wasn’t for Canadian troops taking over the lead in Afghanistan, it would have reverted back to worse than it was before you stuck your nose in to ’save them’.
As an American in 2008, you have no position to even pretend to be righteous, saviours or even wanted by the rest of the free world. So go sit down and polish your sidearm while studying hooked on phonics.
No, I don’t hate Americans, I don’t even see this as America bashing; it’s simply a reality check for you, something which many Americans need REALLY bad.
@ gavrielle
This euro person here doesn’t hate the US (not america you poser, in case you didn’t know you actually have neighbours also in the same continent) but what i do hate is imbecils like you who think that everyone else is worse off and that everybody owes the US something. If this can get past that thickness you call a head, you cannot “save Europe” when it’s europeans versus other europeans. And if you had such good intentions you bloody sure took your time with everyone else doing the fighting for you. In WWI even small countries were in the war longer and had more casualties than the US. In the 2nd you sat on your fat arses until Pearl Harbour. And even then Germany had to declare war on the US for you to come to the european theater of operations where basically the russians did all the fighting and dying for you. Oh! but you had the glory of beating some reserve washed out divisions and some 13 year old boys.
Once again an important topic has degenerated into an “I hate America(ns)’ v ‘America the Brave’ contest. I don’t give a rat’s who nailed this bastard, I am just pleased it got done. If Cedar (#47) is right (I don’t know either way) then they still have a lot to do; at least in US there may be some action, in other places probably not. The EU needs to raise its game though, I’m sure they have the laws and usually are willing to apply them. Death to all spammers.
Gavrielle and rest like him
As you all americans know,the whole world hate you.noone wants to live in your f**ing country.take it for yourself,you deserve it, but you have not right to go to iraq or afghanistan or vietnam or any other free country for any reason. leave the rest of the world alone!
STAY IN AMERICA-LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM!!
that you are so proud of it.The american dream hahahahahaha!
No civil rights-no free marihuana-no freedom of speach-police state-no democracy-No FREEDOM.
i Have a suggestion to make:::close the borders so noone from the rest people of the earth can enter this SUPERIOR and “free” country.It will make many americans feel “safe” from the immigrants-the terrorists.But you have forgot one thing. THAT YOU ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS.and soon without even know it you are all going to be slaves of this police state.
The only terrorists that exists is in your mind and in the mind of your idiot president!
You, the americans have the power to change your police state goverment.Do something about it!
personally i would be happy, if some justice system remained alive in your country, to go your president on trial
for crimes against the humanity and america.he is the terrorist who has demolished your towers.noone else
The only good has remained in this wasteland is some really smart and rebel Americans who countinue to fight and doubt everything for the rest of you. keep fighting!
As for this guy.what can i say.the best punishement was to return the money back or give them to some hospital or charity.9 years are too much for spam.your justice system sucks.IT is not fair the murderer-the rapist-the one who steals public money to get less years in prison than this guy.
@Critic
Counterspamming is never a good idea. That way you’re falling into same level as the spammer(s). Other than that, you most likely ended counterspamming innocent 3rd party…
@Stunzeed and others comparing this to other crimes
Nine years for this is not too much. You’re barking at the wrong tree! Too skimpy sentences for (for example) violent crimes is the real problem you should be crying for.
@Bruce
“The punishment should fit the crime.”?
Ok, you asked it and here’s a solution. Instead of sending the spammer for 9 years to prison, this would be more appropiate: Sentenced to deepest hellhole for reading aloud each and every spam messages he sent… as long as it takes. That way the sentence corresponds to crime.
Oh… and naturally those earning should be taken away. Possibly diverted to Red Cross or similar organizations.
@Frank
Yeah… in Utopia everything should be working without regulation. Perhaps you should find the Utopia and move to there? Obviously you have absolutely NO idea what is involved in spamming! Go on and learn a little. FYI, your idea of “spam protection” is unfortunaly like suggesting someone to get better earplugs when his/her neighbor makes more and more noise everyday. Oh… wait! The OTHER neighbors have to use better and better earplugs (=”spam protection”), too! And somehow you think this is the way it should be?
@ALL
Some people don’t know the difference between U.S. as country and U.S. citizens/people and this even escalates the well known problem. People tend to think that the loudest and most stupid people represent their country best. Having said that, it’s no wonder that people like “gavrielle” unfortunately makes the others (quite wrognly) to think “stupid americans” or similars things. A prime candidate for Darwin Awards: gavrielle
@eu citizen
By your comment, you only seem to be the other side of the bad coin named “gavrielle”. You’re on your way to runner-up for D.A. title.
ok seriously what the hell is the graphic about?
OMG another thread goes off the rails. It’s Eurotrash vs American Idiots yet again. Who’s winnin? I would note that I’ve never seen any anti-american rants get censored. But I once suggested to some britiot that god did not save the queen the allied forces did. I even posted a link to the BBC website and quotes from the webpage…no swearing, just facts. Martin promptly deleted it. I guess we know what side of the pond RLS is on. Did you guys forget that most american idiots come from good ol eurotrash stock? Bring on the New World Order ffs lol
As to the spammer, I think it’s great that the bw hoggin, fraudulent, con-artist, little tw@t got a good stiff one lol. He will probably appeal the sentence and have it reduced to 10 minutes of community service, after which he will move his mailing list to Nigeria where he will be worshipped as a god and it will be business as usual.
Wot?….blimey
@67
Finally! Someone who gets the whole point of the exercise! Uncensored America Bashing should always receive an equivalent Euro trashing.
@eu citizen
you an arab in eu!!! you get out now!!! go america where they render you blackie @ss!!
Gavrielle is a f***ing troll kidiots. Zip it up, your collective stupidity shows
And he got the 9 years for stealing 24 million dollars, not sending a bunch of emails. Stop being stupid
@ LaughingAtFools
i m not a arab or black.i m from the country where the democracy was born about 500 b.c. i have been travelling all over the world for many many years.i have nothing against the arabs or black they are all human as we are.You better get out from your country to see what is going on.i bet the only travel you have made in your life is to go to your mom’s house.get a life.
You have to realize that the situation is the whole earth VS Us
.And this is something that you have achieved with your policy.
you are not a better country than any other.this is something that they want you to believe.but the truth is that we are all the same.
I m happy that not all americans are like you.they actually are some people there who think about democracy and civil rihts giving their life so you all can have some freedom but you dont belong to these people you belong to the slaves.