May 1, 2003 : Virginia Enacts Anti-spam Laws
📅 - The state of Virginia enacted a law yesterday imposing harsh felony penalties for sending spam messages through deceptive means.
The law would penalize those who use fraudulent practices to send unsolicited e-mail, otherwise known as spam, to or from Virginia, a state that is headquarters for a number of major Internet providers and a high volume point for Internet traffic.
The new statute adds criminal penalties for fraudulent, high-volume spammers. It makes illegal, practices such as forging the return address line of an e-mail message of hacking a computer for the purposes of sending spam. Any person found guilty of sending in excess of 10,000 e-mail messages in one day would be subject to a prison term of one to five years in addition to a mandated forfeiture of profits and assets connected with these activities.
In the United States, more than two dozen states have anti-spam laws.
Most observers note that many of the laws have been ineffective due to enforcement problems and questions over jurisdiction.
Virginia's governor, Mark R. Warner, is optimistic about the potential effects of the new law. "Many spammers see the current system that imposes civil fines as just a cost of doing business," Warner told The New York Times. "We hope we will see some high-profile prosecutions. If someone faces a jail sentence and a major forfeiture of assets, it will serve as a deterrent."
Critics however, remain skeptical, especially over the issue of jurisdiction. Shane Ham, a senior analyst who studies anti-spam legislation for the Progressive Policy Institute, said, "I can't imagine the state attorney general in Virginia getting a lot of cooperation if they call up the police in California saying that they want them to arrest and extradite someone who is wanted for spamming," he said to The New York Times
The effort to control the proliferation of spam continues to move forward. Several anti-spam proposals will be debated in a three-day forum on spam in Washington beginning today.
The law would penalize those who use fraudulent practices to send unsolicited e-mail, otherwise known as spam, to or from Virginia, a state that is headquarters for a number of major Internet providers and a high volume point for Internet traffic.
The new statute adds criminal penalties for fraudulent, high-volume spammers. It makes illegal, practices such as forging the return address line of an e-mail message of hacking a computer for the purposes of sending spam. Any person found guilty of sending in excess of 10,000 e-mail messages in one day would be subject to a prison term of one to five years in addition to a mandated forfeiture of profits and assets connected with these activities.
In the United States, more than two dozen states have anti-spam laws.
Most observers note that many of the laws have been ineffective due to enforcement problems and questions over jurisdiction.
Virginia's governor, Mark R. Warner, is optimistic about the potential effects of the new law. "Many spammers see the current system that imposes civil fines as just a cost of doing business," Warner told The New York Times. "We hope we will see some high-profile prosecutions. If someone faces a jail sentence and a major forfeiture of assets, it will serve as a deterrent."
Critics however, remain skeptical, especially over the issue of jurisdiction. Shane Ham, a senior analyst who studies anti-spam legislation for the Progressive Policy Institute, said, "I can't imagine the state attorney general in Virginia getting a lot of cooperation if they call up the police in California saying that they want them to arrest and extradite someone who is wanted for spamming," he said to The New York Times
The effort to control the proliferation of spam continues to move forward. Several anti-spam proposals will be debated in a three-day forum on spam in Washington beginning today.
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URL source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/vir050103.cfm
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