On Thu, 19 Dec 2002 18:01:25 +0100, Bart Buitinga wrote: <snip>
> Funny; not only spammers mention "legal" limits of their activities, but > rightwingers in American newsgroups usually do too, suggesting that > spamming is in fact illegal in the US, forcing spammers to disguise > themselves as mailinglists (thus having this opt-out possibility, which may > of course always coincidentally be broken). Spamming is in fact illegal in several states in the US. The fact that a spammer may offer even a genuine opt-out option does not make his spams legal. Anyone who sends a spam message to any server located in Virginia commits the crime of criminal tresspass. The Virginia statute specifically defines spamming as criminal tresspass. Spammers can be fined and sent to prison. Also the spamming victim can sue the spammer for damages. Unfortunately the spammers are not being prosecuted under the Virginia anti-spamming statute. The lawyers say that any defendant could easily beat the case. A defendant could lie and say he didn't do it. He could claim that some hacker got into his computer and somehow used it to send spams. Also he could say that the system is trying to frame him for something he didn't do, etc. In almost all cases the defendant would be found not guilty for lack of evidence. Spamming is also a violation of the Terms of Service contract agreement for most ISP's all over the world. An ISP can sue a spammer for violation of the contract agreement. To my knowledge there is no federal law against spamming, but there are federal laws against scamming in cases where the con-artist is attempting to conduct interstate or international fraud. If the spam also qualifies as a scam, then the spammer can find himself in trouble with federal authorities as well as state law enforcement authorities. > The main problem is of course, > that there are no customs at internet boundaries, causing both the US' > vulnerabiliy for spam from the rest of the world, and vice versa (maybe in > terms of quantity the rest of the world is slowly gaining in on the US) > Few countries other than the USA, EU and some conservative theocracies have > any specific legislation regarding the internet at all, btw. If a spammer from another country ever comes to the US he could get arrested and prosecuted here. He probably would not get convicted if he hires a good lawyer to invent some believable lies about how his client is likely innocent. > Considering Nigeria however (and supposed you're aware of the complete > legal segregation of this countries northern part, as has been clearly > demonstrated in the bloody rioting about last months miss world festival, > and the Sharia practise of stoning women, not to mention the accusations of > heavy terrorist activity) it seems unlikely that the US would even bother > to sort out minor trouble like spam in these parts. <snip> The US government officially claims to be working on the Nigerian scam problem. For the reasons you mentioned I am very doubtful if the US government is seriously trying to do anything about it. I hope the Nigerians will eventually solve their problems of civil unrest. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser: http://browser.arachne.cz/
