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!
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