TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Ohio Lawmakers OK Bill That Sends Spammers to Jail

Re: Ohio Lawmakers OK Bill That Sends Spammers to Jail

Rick Merrill (RickMerrill@comTHROWcast.net)
Thu, 02 Dec 2004 17:30:40 GMT

Lisa Minter wrote:

> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ohio legislators sent an anti-spam bill to
> Gov. Bob Taft on Tuesday, with the aim of joining other U.S. states
> that have laws that put people who flood the Web with junk e-mail
> behind bars.

A laudable effort, but it will only affect Ohio based spammers, will
it not? A state cannot make a law affecting interstate, much less
international traffic.

I think they should concoct a bill that (like the Lycos attempt) would
permit Ohio-based companies to "return fire" (i.e. spam or DOS the
spammers) -- what is required is for the legislature to recognize a
spammer registry: anyone registered by some due process criteria can
then have their servers spammed and DOS'd by Ohio based servers: ALL
OF THEM!

....

> The worst violators could face a minimum of six months in jail as well
> as fines of $25,000 per violation, or $2 to $8 million per conviction
> for violating e-mail. Their computer equipment could be confiscated,
> and Internet providers could sue for damages.

Too bad that they would wind up punishing Ohio-based spammers who only
spam out-of-state.

> AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham called the Ohio bill "one of the
> strongest anti-spam measures in the country." Graham said the bill is
> aimed only at the worst offenders who use fraud, deception and evasion
> to get their messages in front of consumers.

There should be strong penalties for 419 and identity theft!
e.g. they should permit the banks to stop all money to 419, etc.

> "This is not meant to snag grandma sending her oatmeal cookie recipe,"

That's sweet, but irrelvant.

> The Ohio bill was modeled after the federal CAN-SPAM Act but adds
> tougher penalties. Maryland has adopted an anti-spam law with criminal
> penalties and Virginia recently used its state law to send a North
> Carolina man to prison for sending hundreds of thousands of spam
> e-mail messages.

It's a start!

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Rick Merrill: "Re: Report: FTTP Growing by Leaps and Bounds"
Go to Previous message: Geoffrey Welsh: "Re: Trial Shows How Spammers Operate"
May be in reply to: Lisa Minter: "Ohio Lawmakers OK Bill That Sends Spammers to Jail"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page