Spammers conviction stands

In 2003 Jeremy Jaynes was convicted (in a 4-3 ruling) of distributing massive numbers of junk email messages and sentenced to nine years in prison. Although Jaynes claimed that the law violates his rights under the First Amendment, the court's majority disagreed, asserting that misleading commercial speech is not entitled to First Amendment protection.

While I'm all for First Amendments rights, in this case, I have to agree with the ruling. Supposedly, Jaynes used bogus Internet addresses and different aliases to bombard recipients with e-mails selling fake services and products.

The North Carolina Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, "This is a historic victory in the fight against online crime. Spam not only clogs e-mail inboxes and destroys productivity; it also defrauds citizens and threatens the online revolution that is so critical to Virginia's economic prosperity."

One of the dissenting justices claimed that this ruling criminalizes sending bulk anonymous e-mail, even for petitioning the government or promoting religion. I say, so what? If you're going to promote religion, petition the government or sell worthless junk and/or services, you should be ready to stand behind it with your rightful name and if not, then maybe you should think of another way to peddle your product.