Interesting People mailing list archives
more on BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 16:59:33 -0500
Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 21:52:56 +0000 From: johnl () iecc com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: [IP] BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW To: dave () farber net To: Thomas Leavitt <thomas () thomasleavitt org> > Much as I despise spammers, I believe this is an extraordinarily >dangerous precedent... am I to be liable for prosecution in another >state merely because, at one point or another, a communication I sent >that violated neither the laws of my own state, nor the laws of the >destination state, touched a piece of equipment in a state where some >element of it was illegal? No, there's two centuries of law laying out how much contact you need with a state for a state's law to apply to you. The reason the Virgina law is relevant is because some very large ISPs, notably AOL, are physically located there. Virginia arrested these guys because they sent hundreds of thousands of fraudulent spams to AOL users whose e-mail mailboxes are physically located in Virginia near Dulles Airport. It's utterly implausible that someone who sends that much e-mail of any sort wouldn't know where AOL is. The relevant precedent was the Verizon v. Ralsky case a year or two ago which was settled on terms favorable to Verizon once the court ruled that Ralsky, who admits to being a professional spammer, should be expected to know as part of his general business knowledge where the major targets of his spam such as Verizon are. They didn't say every target, just the great big ones, and Virginia has some of the biggest. > Are Internet users going to be forced to familiarize themselves with >the laws of every state in the union, and the physical location of >each and every piece of equipment in use, in order to avoid >prosecution? Of course not, unless you're planning to send a lot of spam with fraudulent headers and contact info. Regards, John Levine, johnl () iecc com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web -- John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl () iecc com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl,Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
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- more on BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW Dave Farber (Dec 13)
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- more on BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW Dave Farber (Dec 17)