[IP] more on BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+@ux13.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 21:52:56 +0000
From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine)
Subject: Re: [IP] BIG-TIME SPAMMER ARRESTED UNDER TOUGH VIRGINIA LAW
To: dave@farber.net
To: Thomas Leavitt <thomas@thomasleavitt.org>

> Much as I despise spammers, I believe this is an extraordinarily
>dangerous precedent... am I to be liable for prosecution in another
>state merely because, at one point or another, a communication I sent
>that violated neither the laws of my own state, nor the laws of the
>destination state, touched a piece of equipment in a state where some
>element of it was illegal?

No, there's two centuries of law laying out how much contact you need
with a state for a state's law to apply to you.  The reason the
Virgina law is relevant is because some very large ISPs, notably AOL,
are physically located there.  Virginia arrested these guys because
they sent hundreds of thousands of fraudulent spams to AOL users whose
e-mail mailboxes are physically located in Virginia near Dulles
Airport.  It's utterly implausible that someone who sends that much
e-mail of any sort wouldn't know where AOL is.  The relevant precedent
was the Verizon v. Ralsky case a year or two ago which was settled on
terms favorable to Verizon once the court ruled that Ralsky, who
admits to being a professional spammer, should be expected to know as
part of his general business knowledge where the major targets of his
spam such as Verizon are.  They didn't say every target, just the
great big ones, and Virginia has some of the biggest.

> Are Internet users going to be forced to familiarize themselves with
>the laws of every state in the union, and the physical location of
>each and every piece of equipment in use, in order to avoid
>prosecution?

Of course not, unless you're planning to send a lot of spam with
fraudulent headers and contact info.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
"A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web
--
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711
johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl,
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail 

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