Spammer jailed, 'cos spam ain't free speech (and 207 stiffs)

IT Blogwatch, IT Blogwatch, egg, beans, and IT Blogwatch: in which a huge spammer loses his appeal against a nine year jail sentence. Not to mention 207 frozen people in Grand Central Station...

Larry O'Dell reports:

A divided Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the nation's first felony conviction for illegal spamming on Friday ... 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 ... In the 4-3 ruling, the court rejected Jaynes' claim that the state law violates both the First Amendment and the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution ... [ruling that] misleading commercial speech is not entitled to First Amendment protection. more

David Chartier adds:

The court rejected these claims due to Jaynes' use of fake e-mail addresses, which ... [denies] recipients a means of contacting the sender. The court also stated that his peddling of scam products and services excludes him from First Amendment rights. In effect, the court said that you can't scam people and then cry "free speech!" when hooked by the law ... Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the AOL servers he used for sending spam were located in Loudoun County, Virginia. more

Your humble blogwatcher breaks his recent silence:

I see that Jeremy Jaynes has lost his appeal ... Jolly good, and no surprise there, I think. However, why on Earth was it a 4-to-3 split decision? What were those three state supreme court judges thinking? Well, according to the AP: ... the law ... prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment. Oh, balderdash. I find it really hard to believe that the American founding fathers intended my email to be full of spam. more

Chas Borner agrees:

The dissenting judge's comments about restraining speech for political and religious spam? If a Hari Krishna or a LDS evangelist, or a Politico I don't like comes to my door, I have the right to slam the door in their face and choose not to "receive the message". And if they drop their crap on my doorstep, I get fined for littering. more

Venkat Balasubramani circles the wagons:

I should say that it’s not often one is actually excited to read [a court] order in a case you’re not involved with. This is definitely one of those instances where the excitement is palpable ... Jaynes actually had a creative argument on the commerce clause issue. He argued that the statute improperly regulated emails which only “passed through” servers in Virginia, which ultimately ended up elsewhere. Thus, he argued that in some instances the statute had a wholly extraterritorial effect. more

James Rye thinks:

Having the right of free speech, doesn’t give you the right to repeatedly and unwantedly invade someone else’s privacy ... most spamming has little to do with free speech issues and involves so many other things that could be considered illegal ... Unsolicited emails are still unsolicited, even if they are not commerical and concerned with ideas. It is still an unwanted invasion ... It is not true that spam is a costless crime. [Unfortunately, he then goes on to recommend a challenge/response spam filter] more

Have you hugged Peter da Silva today?

If you run a blaring loudspeaker van through a residential neighborhood at 4AM it doesn't matter whether the material you're playing is "constitutionally protected speech" or not. You're still subject to noise abatement laws. The whole issue of freedom of speech is a red herring. more

John C. Randolph concurs:

Spam is not, and has never been a free-speech issue. It's a property rights issue. The spammers' right to speak does not include a right to use other people's equipment to do so. This spammer has committed millions of counts of unauthorized use of property, along with fraud. more

And finally...

• Frozen Grand Central
  

Buffer overflow:

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• Hu Yoshida: Pre, post, and In Line Deduplication Ratios
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• Andy ITGuy: Digital Forensics

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• Preston Gralla: Microsoft exec: We know users hate UAC
• Seth Weintraub: Apple is again number 1 in higher education (laptop sales)
• Preston Gralla: Was Intel behind the Vista 'junk PC' scheme?
• Mark Hall: Vertica database tuned for analytics
• David Haskin: Firefox, open access and the brick wall of mobile operators
• Michael R. Farnum: Child Internet Safety Task Force
• David DeJean: Microsoft: save $44 billion, just make Hotmail free
• Douglas Schweitzer: Online help with your daily commute
• Shark Tank: Aren't you glad you chose a classy career in IT?

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Pssst! Want some hot FTP logins? (and not just a good idea)
• Microsoft 2008 launch happens, heroically (and pop babel)
• Apple announces shiny, "new" laptops (and 2008 decided)