November 2004
Sophisticated spam scams come under attack in US courts
Spam accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all email traffic. It generally originates from the US and is a menace for businesses and individuals alike. It wastes time, resources and clogs up the cyber waves.
Ranked as the eighth-most prolific spammer in the world by the watchdog group Spamhaus, Jeremy Jaynes was arrested last December and has now been convicted for nine long years. Jaynes had caused over-spill of junk emails to pop up on many an unwitting AOL user with offers for worthless products, which were often never delivered to the end consumer. The online consumer's credit cards however helped Jaynes accumulate a 24 million-dollar fortune. When Jaynes is formally sentenced in February, the judge may reduce the sentence, leave it intact or set the conviction aside.
BRIFFA Comment:
The case was brought under a Virginian law i.e. the Can Spam Act, officially known as the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003". It was the first nation-wide attempt to control unsolicited bulk email, which has untraceable routing information. The law however is claimed to pre-empt the more stringent requirements of state anti-spam laws and arm businesses and consumers with few legal weapons. However, it does provide businesses, not individuals, with some defensive weaponry and it sets strict penalties for violations.
The law on spam is as yet relatively untrodden territory but now the pressure is on Britain and other parts of the world to introduce an effective legal framework with clear guidelines and legal boundaries, which are fair and balanced. Judicial ingenuity will have to be pushed to new limits if an effective law that operates transglobally is to be passed which is applicable to the internet which is itself the platform provider on which endless possibilities for such activities exist.