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   Virginia threatens spammers with jail time

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Topic: Virginia threatens spammers with jail time (Read 225 times)

Rhune
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Virginia threatens spammers with jail time
« on: May 1^st, 2003, 8:45am »

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Virginia threatens spammers with jail time
Wednesday, April 30, 2003 Posted: 12:18 PM EDT (1618 GMT)

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Internet mavens who clog computers with massive volumes of unsolicited e-mail pitches now risk landing in prison and losing their riches under a tough Virginia law signed Tuesday.

Although about half the states have anti-spam laws, no other allows authorities to seize the assets earned from spamming while imposing up to five years in prison, said Gov. Mark R. Warner.

The penalties can apply even if the sender and recipients live elsewhere because much of the global Internet traffic passes through northern Virginia, home to major online companies such as America Online and MCI and a conduit to major federal communications hubs in neighboring Washington and its suburbs.

"We want to be able to put out not only a potential criminal violation with the felony but also to seize the proceeds from this illegal activity -- their cars, boats, airplanes, homes," Warner said.

Warner, who became a multimillionaire as a high-technology investor before he was elected governor, said technical filters and civil penalties have proven inadequate.

The new law is directed at commercial bulk e-mail, with certain provisions that kick in when someone sends at least 10,000 copies of a message in a single day or makes at least $1,000 from one such transmission.

"That's different than an occasional e-mail gone awry," Warner said.

The Virginia law also prohibits tools that automate spam and the forging of e-mail headers, which contain identification information on the sender and its service provider. Spammers often forge the headers to hide their identity and cover their tracks.

The same provisions could affect noncommercial unsolicited e-mail from charities, churches or political candidates if they exceed the volume limit or disguise the sender's identity, said Tim Murtaugh, press secretary for Virginia's attorney general.

Spamming has grown into a costly problem and the No. 1 complaint of AOL's nearly 35 million users, said Randall Boe, AOL's chief staff attorney. AOL blocks billions of pieces of spam each week, but billions more get through, he said.

John R. Levine, a board member of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, applauded tougher penalties for spammers, but questioned how effective Virginia law's will be.

"It depends on prosecutors to put them in line along with rapists, murderers and wife-beaters, so I don't think it will be very effective without additional funding," Levine said.

In a study released Tuesday in advance of a three-day forum on how government and businesses should deal with spam, the Federal Trade Commission said a third of spam e-mails contained false information.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, plans to introduce legislation this week offering rewards for individuals who help track down spammers. Her bill would require marketers to label spam as "ADV:" and prohibit false or misleading message headers.

State laws with similar provisions have been hard to enforce because they require tremendous resources to track down elusive spammers.

Earlier this week, AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a joint initiative to combat spam through such techniques as identifying and restricting messages with deceptive headers.

AOL Time Warner is the parent company of America Online and CNN.

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luci
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Re: Virginia threatens spammers with jail time
« Reply #1 on: May 1^st, 2003, 11:12am »