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VA makes spam sent by fraud made a felony
Posted by Kevin Chen on Wednesday, April 30 @ 03:40:24 EDT Computer Crime
NYTimes is reporting (free registration required) that Virginia just passed a law "add[ing] criminal penalties for fraudulent, high-volume spammers. It outlaws practices like forging the return address line of an e-mail message or hacking a computer to send spam surreptitiously. Those found guilty of sending more than 10,000 such deceptive e-mail messages in one day would be subject to a prison term of one to five years and forfeiture of profits and assets connected with these activities."

The governor believes this will put a stop to a large number of spam because half of all internet traffic flows through the state, but critics contend that there will likely be jurisdictional problems.

However, at the very least, this bill may spawn some action from the relatively inactive Congress on this matter.

Further details can be found by reading the article.
 
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Good or Bad? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 30 @ 15:59:17 EDT
I was reading a CNN article about the bill. Previously I read a few stories and though the bill sounded like a good idea. I especially like the emphasis on header fraud.

The CNN article made it sound like that wasn't a requirement... only sending more than 1000 messages. They said it might affect charity spammers. While I detest all forms of spam, that has some 1st ammendment implications because political speech is much more strongly protected than commercial speech.

Then I read this paragraph:
"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."

That sounds kind of like the DMCA. It outlaws
technology which has potential for abuse... but
it outlaws it no matter what the intended purpose
or actual use is.



[ Reply to This ]


Re: VA makes spam sent by fraud made a felony (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, May 05 @ 11:01:28 EDT
The governor believes this will put a stop to a large number of spam because half of all internet traffic flows through the state, but critics contend that there will likely be jurisdictional problems.

Namely, Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc., one of the many unanamous decisions that local restrictions which burden interstate commerce are unconstitutional.


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