September 17, 2008
Court Overturns Conviction of Spammer
The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned a state antispam law and the 2004 conviction of long-time spammer Jeremy Jaynes, saying the law is an overly broad prohibition on anonymous free speech.
The Supreme Court, in a decision released Friday, said the 2003 Virginia spam law didn't distinguish between commercial e-mails and those with political messages, and thus was an overly broad prohibition on free speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Here is the opinion.
Jaynes was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to nine years in prison for sending millions of unsolicited e-mail messages a day from his home in North Carolina. He was the first person to be convicted of sending illegal spam in the U.S.
Filed under Blog, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Internet and Media Law by Tracy Robinson
Comments on Court Overturns Conviction of Spammer »
That is really interesting, I never thought of spamming being someone utilizing their freedom of speech. As the internet becomes more and more prominent I am sure we will see more of these types of cases.
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I had never realized that spamming was breaking the law. I guess that is a really extreme case, however I believe in the future there will be a lot more laws governing what we can and cannot do on the internet.
I'm thinking of the other convicted spam king Eddie Davidson of Colorado who almost one year ago escaped from his Federal minimum security detention and went missing for several days and then was discovered to have killed his wife and children before killing himself. Shameful and cowardly. I agree Jaynes conviction back in 2004 seemed excessive for the crime and fortunately he didn't he go the way of Davidson who not only "inconvenienced" countless livelihoods but far worse destroyed the innocent lives of his family.