JAILING SPAMMERS IN VA
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James Joyner | Wednesday, April 30, 2003 |
NYT reports that Spam Sent by Fraud Is Made a Felony Under Virginia Law. Interesting. I have no idea how this could possibly be enforceable unless both the sender and recipient resided in Virginia and am clueless as to how it would be technically feasible even then. Indeed, since the Internet is the epitome of interstate commerce, I’m not sure how the several States derive the power to regulate this anyway. Aside from that, a great idea.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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I posted about this last night, saying I hope they throw the book at them when they're caught. But catching them is the key now. Realistically, there's no way this law will ever be enforced. It's as you said, the spammer would have to be in Virginia as would the spammee. It's nice to know the law exists, but I doubt we'll see that many spammers caught and jailed.
All this would do, assuming it could be enforced at all (and I agree with James on that point) is drive spamming abroad.
You guys missed the second sentence in the article, the reason why VA is trying to enact such a law is because some of the big ISPs such as, say, AOL are located in VA.
Thusly, if spam goes to an AOL customer, guess what, it has to pass through computers located in VA. The supporters of this law say that since the ISP is located in VA, then that gives VA prosecutors jurisdiction.
Joy,
Interesting. Indeed, I pass right by AOL HQ on my way to work in the morning. :)
I don't think this will fly, but I don't have the legal expertise to know for sure. For that matter, I don't know if enough precedent exists that anyone knows for sure. I'm not sure how VA authorities could arrest someone who committed a crime without setting foot in VA, though. Given that people don't like spammers, it's conceivable that other states would extradite, but I'm dubious of the legality of that.
Well, I'd expect it to fly if anything because if you look at the headers of an email message, you can tell basically where the email has been via the IP addresses that are recorded in the headers. This is how you track down spammers.
If I recall correctly, I believe that ISPs are regulated by the state (or other governing body) that they are physically located. That's why there are some ISPs go offshore to escape certain laws. There is in fact an ISP called Sealand that is based in a micronation just outside of Britain. The reason for the location? Because the ISP was looking for a friendly nation without restrictive laws.
Also, take a minute and think about the problems that Yahoo (France) and Google (China) have had with certain governments wanting to ban material found on both of those sites. Even though those two sites were not necessarily located in the nations in question, those two sites still complied with the eventual judgements against them.
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