Virginia Court Lets Spammer Walk

• By theWHIR.com , September 12, 2008

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By David Hamilton, theWHIR.com

September 12, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment applies to spam, in a decision that has letting one of the internet's most prolific spammers go free.

According to an official court document released Friday, Jeremy Jaynes sent thousands of unsolicited emails from his home in Raleigh, North Carolina, resulting in three separate charges that would have resulted in consecutive three-year prison sentences.

Jaynes was saved by the constitutional right to engage in anonymous speech, which in confederation times particularly addressed anonymous political or religious speech. The court held this right as "an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment."

Having already been found guilty of charges by lower court, the supreme court overturned Jaynes' three charges of sending unsolicited bulk electronic mail under the Virginia Computer Crimes Act that would have resulted in almost a decade of jail time.

In July, Seattle spam king Robert Soloway was sentenced in federal court after he pleaded guilty to mail fraud, fraud in connection with electronic mail and willful failure to file return for sentencing.

Later that month, spammer Edward Davidson could not escape prosecution, however, he fled prison just five weeks into his 21-month sentence. His prison break ended in a grizzly murder-suicide.

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