Spamming Laws Provide No Solution

I don’t think it’s a secret that we all hate spam. Every month or so I see new products and new schemes to get past spam filters. Spammers continue to be concerned about my penis, my watch and my credit report but now they’re really worried about how I trim my cat’s nails. I also hear from lonely girls sitting in internet cafe’s. They obviously are aren’t aware of my need for Viagra.

While we all hoped the CAN_SPAM Act would help it’s done little to stem the flood of unwanted Emails. Suing someone under the federal act can be expensive so many plantiffs rely on state anti-spam laws.

Recently an obvious spam case in Virginia was thrown out because the law as written was to broad. ( Commonwealth vs Jaynes )

On July 16, 2003, Jaynes sent 12,197 pieces of unsolicited e-mail with falsified routing and transmission information onto AOL’s proprietary network. On July 19, 2003, he sent 24,172, and on July 26, 2003, he sent 19,104. None of the recipients of the e-mails had requested any communication from Jaynes. He intentionally falsified the header information and sender domain names before transmitting the e-mails to the recipients.

Unfortunately the court concluded the following…

…we hold that the circuit court properly had jurisdiction over Jaynes. We also hold that Jaynes has standing to raise a First Amendment overbreadth claim as to Code § 18.2-152.3:1. That statute is unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Accordingly, we will reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and vacate Jaynes’ convictions of violations of Code § 18.2-152.3:1. 13

Our law makers have a difficult time creating laws that cover every possible situation but wouldn’t it be nice if judges were able to enforce the true spirit or intent of laws?

I still use AOL and I must admit they have a decent spam filter. Unfortunately, they have their own “certified” approved spam which comes with a special blue colored icon. I find joy in selecting these and clicking AOL’s “Report Spam” button.

I still have to review what Outlook filters out but it’s getting easier to pick out the crap just by looking at it. I expect we’ll all start seeing a lot of Email on how to solve our financial crisis.

How do you deal with your spam?

PS… Lady Chalupa says “No to Pedi Paws”.