Guess the balding cure doesn't work after all...
Posted on 04/08/2005 11:23:33 AM PDT by AntiGuv
LEESBURG, Va. - A Virginia judge sentenced a spammer to nine years in prison Friday in the nation's first felony prosecution for sending junk e-mail, though the sentence was postponed while the case is appealed.
Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas Horne said that because the law targeting bulk e-mail distribution is new and raises constitutional questions, it was appropriate to defer the prison time until appeals courts rule.
A jury had recommended the nine-year prison term after convicting Jeremy Jaynes of pumping out at least 10 million e-mails a day with the help of 16 high-speed lines, the kind of Internet capacity a 1,000-employee company would need.
Jaynes, of Raleigh, N.C., told the judge that regardless of how the appeal turns out, "I can guarantee the court I will not be involved in the e-mail marketing business again."
The prosecutor, Lisa Hicks-Thomas, said she was pleased with the sentence and confident that the law would be upheld on appeal.
"We're satisfied that the court upheld what 12 citizens of Virginia determined was an appropriate sentence — nine years in prison," Hicks-Thomas said.
Defense attorney David Oblon argued in court that nine years was far too long given that Jaynes was charged as an out-of-state resident with violating a Virginia law that had taken effect just two weeks before.
"We have no doubt that we will win on appeal," Oblon said outside court. "Therefore any sentence is somewhat moot. Still, the sentence is not what we recommended and we're disappointed."
Jaynes declined to talk to reporters. He remains under $1 million bond.
Though Oblon has never disputed that his client was a bulk e-mail distributor, he argued during the trial that the law was poorly crafted and that prosecutors never proved the e-mail was unsolicited. He also has said the law is an unconstitutional infringement of free speech.
Under Virginia law, sending unsolicited bulk e-mail itself is not a crime unless the sender masks his identity. Prosecutors brought the case in Virginia because it is home to America Online Inc., the leading Internet service provider.
Prosecutors have described Jaynes as among the top 10 spammers in the world at the time of his arrest, using the name "Gaven Stubberfield" and other aliases to peddle junk products and pornography. Prosecutors say he grossed up to $750,000 per month.
The jury also convicted Jaynes's sister, Jessica DeGroot of Raleigh, but recommended only a $7,500 fine. Her conviction was later dismissed by the judge. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski of Cary, N.C., was acquitted of all charges.
Guess the balding cure doesn't work after all...
"A Virginia judge sentenced a spammer to nine years in prison Friday..."
Works for me.
Don't suppose his new roomie will introduce him to a whole new kind of spam do you?
Just as a conservative estimate, if the average time wasted on one of his spams was 5 seconds per email, that's 578.7 days of other peoples' lives he was wasting every single day.
A rope is too good for this guy. Put a full clip in each knee, cut his hands off, and dump him in the desert to rot.
OUCH!
Too bad he didn't do something even more serious like kick a dog or starve a cat to death then he would have gotten some serious time. Our law enforcement and judicial systems are a flaming mess right now.
It's a good thing he didn't smuggle illegal aliens into the country, or starved his wife to death. Then he'd really be in trouble.
Great minds....
Wow. Did you work for Don Corleone or something?
Not that I disagree, mind you...
Leave the gun, take the canole.
bump for later discussion
You get a lot of spam, don't you?
This case simply reveals the fact that we've become a nation of crybabies. Apparently, the companies that the spammer targeted has never heard of anti-spam software.
Actually I get less than most because I use a throwaway account for untrusted transactions. But I view spam as the equivalent of urinating on a million people at a time.
I agree. The judicial system is a joke. I don't see why he has to serve 9rs. It's only spam, however annoying it is, 9yrs. is too much.
This is where he starts to regret all those "Increas3 y0ur pen1s s1ze!!!" emails.
Well, if he was bringing in $750,000 a month for quite some time as this article indicates, he will never have to do it again. Financially, he's set the day he walks free.
Dear tfecw,
The law doesn't outright ban spam. It does outright ban the abuse of spam.
It requires mass e-mailers to maintain "do not contact" lists.
It makes it illegal to use forged e-mail addresses, making it difficult to filter out spam in certain ways.
Thus, there are folks who legitimately conduct the equivalent of "junk e-mail" operations. I've thought of using them for my own business. They aren't illegal.
But what this guy did was.
And I'm delighted that he'll do hard time for it.
sitetest
Short of changing my email address, I don't know what can be done.
That said, 9 years is cruel and unusal punishment. 6 months should be the limit...or a hefty fine. Not both.
I hate spammers. Who doesn't? But, I agree with your post. It's good to set a precedent and have this guy serve as an example. But, unless he had some particularly heinous priors, this sentence is over the top. If he's some kind of uber geek who's never served prison time, two or three years would be more than enough. I'd love to see some violent felons get a 9 year sentence for crimes that are far more serious than this!
Am I a bad person?
Well, if I lived in the UK, I would probably feel no differently.
Spam in a, er, can perhaps?
Monty Python skit.
But I don't like spam.
He can now use all that useless Viagra crap I GOT IN MY EMAIL to keep his new "boyfriend" happy while he's locked up.
I do the same. Prudent people who hate spam take actions to avoid it. As a spam hater, I'm stuck. Advertising "steals" a lot of time, which is one reason why I don't watch TV. Billboards pull eyes off the road. Magazine ads distract from the text. Popups or popunders are infuriating. But...at some point it makes sense to defend free enterprise. It would be really easy to turn anti-capitalist if all we consider is how annoying salespersons, advertisers, marketers, etc are.
I own a few domains, and spammers use them as their "reply to" address. When they do their spam campaigns, my inbox gets crowded, and they're misrepresenting me.
I managed a Christian website, for example, and started to get "bounced back" emails promoting pornographic stuff, sent as though it were from the Christian website.
This is called "joe jobbing" -- do a google search to see how infuriating it can be.
I'm all for both the 9 year sentence, and the bullets to the knees. These are not mere "marketers," they are members of "spam gangs." Seriously. We're talking "bad people"....
Getting a good lawyer means everything.
Sandy Berger, who was President Clinton's top national security aide, makes a statement outside the U.S. District Court House in Washington after pleading guilty Friday, April 1, 2005 to taking classified documents from the National Archives and cutting them up with scissors. At left is Berger's attorney, Lanny Breuer.(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Forms of advertising that steal from the person being advertised to - telemarketing, email spam, junk faxes - are not capitalism, they are a theft of property. Any capitalist system must necessarily have a protection of property otherwise the main motivator of work in such a system is dramatically undercut.
Good, I hope this guy takes it right in the bunghole. Spammers are worthless losers.
"Apparently, the companies that the spammer targeted has never heard of anti-spam software."
It's not just the filtering, though - it's the enormous waste of bandwidth and processing power to deliver it, even if it doesn't show up in your inbox. It's like stealing your own property.
At least with junk mail the sender pays the postage.
Amen.
My yahoo bulk folder gets between 250 to 550 a day. Most of the time it is closer to 550.
An yet the author of a major virus was basically given a handslap. I still don't understand that sentence. When I think of the time I've wasted because of these childlike morons and multiply that by the millions affected, I think a nine+ term would have been sufficient. Yet, he only got probation and not jail time. How many business were affected, how many lives were affected? Someday there will people dying because of these "childish pranks".
Perhaps his cell can be fitted with a fire ant hill or perhaps a hornets nest.
Mere death would be way to pleasant.
I'm writing the judge to thank him. Great. This is great news! But the guy should have been sentenced to an amount of time equal to everyone's time he has wasted. That would have him in jail for 1,000 years (at least). He should feel lucky it is only nine years.
That said, I wish they had caught one of the truly evil punks that build viruses.
Apparently you have little idea how the anti spam software works. The main part is the address book. If an email is listed in this address book, the mail will go through. But that means the email that is not in the book will go to a anti spam list. The main problem is if someone out there is not a spammer, then the email will show up on a spam list. I have to review this list to make sure that the email is legit and should go to my box. I have to then have the email item sent to my box. This takes as much or more time than before. (with earthlink anti spam software)
Good news. Thank you for posting this. May the rest follow him.
Sort of... I think thoughtomator's a special consultant to Hillary's '08 campaign...
I think 9 years is a long time for a non violent crime.
My suggestion is to call the Judge and thank him. I just did and they seemed real happy to get the call. The clerk was very nice on the phone and said they love to get feedback.
You can reach them at this number: 703/777-0270
Don't send them an email. Pick up the phone and call them with your support.
If you want to verify the contact, here is the link to their web site.
http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/circuit/Loudoun/home.html
Clerk
Hon Gary M. Clemens
Hours
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Phone
703/777-0270
Judges: 703/777-0464
Fax: 703/777-0376
Fax-Judges: 703/777-0676
Address
P. O. Box 550
18 E. Market St.
Leesburg, VA 20178
Judges
Hon. James H. Chamblin~*
Hon. Thomas D. Horne~
Hon. Burke F. McCahill~
Hon. Jeffrey W. Parker
* Chief Judge
~ Presiding Judge
No, my formulation doesn't equate any form of solicitation with theft. Billboards don't take your time. Newspaper ads are part of the newspaper's product, so when you buy one, you are choosing to buy it with the ads. Likewise, TV ads are legitimate; if you don't want to see them, turn off your TV, not a moment of your time need be wasted.
In contrast, with email there is a server that must be maintained, at a cost to the recipient; with faxes, a fax machine; and with telephones, a telephone line. With none of those devices does the owner make an agreement to accept advertising as part of the cost of owning the device or receiving the service (this is in contrast to cable TV ads, for example).
I am specifically talking about the forms of advertising that have a direct cost to the recipient, where the recipient did not request a service that included advertising. If spammers paid a percentage of email server maintenance costs, or telemarketers subsidized phone service, or junk faxers paid for phone and ink, and the recipient chose to accept those services with embedded advertising, it would be different. But it's not - it's more akin to receiving a letter postage due, and finding out that it's a credit card offer with a 20% rate.
No, the violent crimes just don't get harsh enough sentences. Instead of moaning about this sentence being too harsh in relation to other crimes, spend your energy pushing for tougher sentences for violent crimes
Besides, who said it is not violent. I'm sure plenty of people have banged on the keyboard in frustration over all the junk email they get. OK, so that's only a little violence. But it multiplies by millions and millions of people. Adding it all up, it would equal mass murder. He got of light!
Well, I am a New Yorker... and I do trace my paternal line to southern Italy.
LOL. The only thing is it might pollute the desert. How about this: we keep him alive in a cell, and use a talking computer, out of his reach, that uses "You've Got Mail!" each time a spam email shows up and then a digitized voice that reads each email (especially with the bad spelling) to him in complete form. Then goes on to the next.
Of course, we reroute all of his former spam to this computer.
Do this 24 hours per day, for say, no more than the 9 years, constantly.
After all, we wouldn't want to be cruel. 8)
Making him sit through a reading of every email he sent out seems like an appropriate punishment. He'll only be 24000 years old or so by the time it's done.
Six months. You are rediculas. That is way too light. Who is that going to deter?
On the contrary; some of us are very aware of how anti-spam software works. Not all, however, use techniques that are based on address lists. Bayesian filtering is a very good alternative.
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