Virginia Supreme Court: Spam is fine!
The Virginia Supreme Court has decided that the state’s anti-spam law is unconstitutional and freed a man once considered one of the world’s most prolific spammers. The court unanimously agreed that the law violates free speech because it does not just restrict commercial e-mails it blocks all unsolicited messages too. Other states have anti-spam laws but those laws apply only to commercial e-mail. Justice G. Steven Agee said that the Virginia law was silly because prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails, including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment.
He pointed out that the famous Federalist Papers urging ratification of the Constitution would be labelled Spam under this law if they had been sent as email. The writers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay would have gone to jail as spammers, rather than the French-backed terrorists against the lawful government, that they were. The move means that Jeremy Jaynes, the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of sending spam, will be freed from the charge. He sent up to 10 million e-mails a day from his home in Raleigh. In 2004, Jaynes was sentenced to nine years in the Clink. Fortunately for those who don’t like spam he remains inside jail because he is also serving time in federal prison for a securities fraud conviction. This has nothing to do with spam, where he was just expressing free speech, apparently.
Source: Inquirer
Comments(33)
Thanks to google mail i haven’t had to deal with a single spam mail in years
I mean I get spam, but the filter is just so efficient that I don’t even have to bother to look at them!
This is a dark day. This was the chance for the state court to control something that everyone considers bad for the populace.
It is judges like this that refute legitiamate claims to make pron websites have the .xxx extension, which would make them easy to block at the router level from kids.
Now that people can span, this allows it to go to the federal level, costing us, the tax payers, MILLIONS.
Spam is bad, end of debate. Getting real mail in my mail box at home is bad too, end of debate.
Some judges need to be removed by force.
Spam? You mean the stuff people used to get in the nineties?
Yes, I agree google mail filter works great finally google use all that data for good use.
Spam is bad I agree. But this is not the judges fault.
It’s the law that was wrong in trying to declare too much as spam. Unfortunately that means that the everything this law states is inexistent including the “actual” spam. So basically it’s the fault of the state of Virginia.
I’m sure they’ll adjust the law – but this was a get out of jail 9 years earlier card for this man.
Good job I’m a brit and not a stupid american then. This is one EU law I fully support and I don’t know about the americans but we brits and europeans can actually claim compensation from the sender if we wish. Under EU law the sender has to gain the permission from the owner of the email address before sending any spam messages.
I like spam with my mac and cheese!!
tHEY WONT LET ME SPAM. BASTARDS
spam with mac and cheese IS good
> This is a dark day. This was the chance for the state court
> to control something that everyone considers bad for the
> populace.
So we should get rid of free speech because people don’t like spam email? I guess the government should kill rlslog since they (and their corporate sponsors) don’t like it?
> Now that people can span, this allows it to go to the
> federal level, costing us, the tax payers, MILLIONS.
How does someone spamming me cost the tax payers millions again?
A thick slice of fried spam on a toasted everything bagel with a slice of jalapeno pepper jack cheese. Mmmmmmm….
Free Viagra !!!
Visit http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com !!! nooooow
remove spam protection (sum 5+8) when posting comments at rlslog NOW you illegal bastards! :p
Anyway most of spam comes from China so it wouldn’t make a difference if the judge ruled differently
you all may complain but i say yeah
“law was silly because prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails, including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment”
According to that it means if you send out say the same email to 12 friends trying to get them to join you on say my space your a spammer and could go to prison
I say The judge is right they need to rewrite the law
@10,
so spamming all the viagra sh`t is equal to go to rlslog, your own decision??
you wont make the difference from the rule, some who use the “you people” phrase are utterly idiots.
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I LOVE IN VIRGINIA COOL!!! BUT YEA SPAM ISNT THAT BIG OF A DEAL NOW. IF IT SAYS YOU WON A MILLION DOLLARS. DOUBT IT!
I know it’s not exactely the same thing, but RIGHT above the “Leve a reply” box, sits a big, fat “You have 2 messages waiting for you” box…
i rather get 100 spams a day than let google read my mail.
Well this is a Virgina ruling so its not binding to all of America? At least I hope not. America has been letting me down these past years….
@10
It costs us millions to go back and forth in the legal system and make this a state issue. This should be at the federal level and stay there. Otherwise, how would you spam Virginians an not the other 49 states? You can’t. It has to be handled at the country level. So yes, it costs us millions in legal fee’s.
It costs us thousands in Antispam tools at the corporate level.
its costs us countless hours to rifle through fake, malicious and misleading emails.
How does this affect RSLog? is RSLog Spam? Does 12 people constitute as spam? No. We are talking tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of emails with information you don’t need. So don’t play “The constitution” this or that little boy, because you are doing what lawyers do. Placing cases in endless loops where nothing gets done, ever.
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LOL @ U.S. judges and laws it’s stupid bull$#!t
f!%k spam
There is a big difference between sending an email to 12 friends and a bulk email to thousands. The law may need to be re-stated, but it was not silly in practical use. The real problem is the law cannot allow discretion to be applied in this case. Everthing has to be spelled out in black and white because morons would file suits and their lawyers would manipulate the gray area with legal rhetoric. I worked for the 23rd largest lawfirm in the US for 2 yrs and have been in the VA Supreme Court several times to enter evidence. Trust me, most lawyers are scumbags! That is… until they get you out of trouble
In all fairness, they can’t do anymore than the law allows whether it’s ethical or not.
@ uiop right on thats the problem, people seem to have forgotten whats actually right and wrong, and now its all about whats “technically” right and wrong….BS!
@Zhylo:
>I know it’s not exactely the same thing, but RIGHT above the “Leve a reply” box, sits a big, fat “You have 2 messages waiting for you” box…
No such box, here’s a tip: Firefox…
write a stupid law and it will get shot down. For once the constitution was used for its intended purpose.
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j/k
@ bitna
You and all of Britain and Euroupe can go to hell…
Stupid Brits and their stupid opinions…
What’s Judges’ email addy. Need to add them on Spammers Mailing List.
Instead of slamming the judge we should be applauding him! And we Brits need to be real quiet on this one, at least the bloody colonials HAVE a written right to freedom of speech.
The judge struck a blow for the freedom of all americans to use their constitutional rights. If some american feels the need to send out 10 million “Save Barney The Dinosaur” emails then that must be allowed.
Sure in this case the guy was a commercial spammer (DIE YOU SCUM) but its better that one spammer go free then someone else have their constitutional rights impinged.
@bitna
You sit there using an American made CPU which is running an American made OS on an American invented internet. mate, you would not even have the chance to pass your variation of laws concerning this issue if it were not for the yanks.
damn clueless pom. (note that is aimed ONLY at bitna)
@32 you can’t really say the americans invented the internet. Arpanet yes but the internet no. It is fair to say that without the americans the internet wouldn’t have happened when it did. And by ‘internet’ you probably mean the web, which of course is a brit invention.