Should Spam Sentences Be Light?

from the well,-relatively... dept

Back in January, the US Sentencing Commission asked for feedback on what sort of punishment convicted spammers should receive. We figured that people would write in with suggestions that included life in prison (while deleting an ever-full spammed in-box, of course), but it appears the opposite has happened. Legal groups wrote in to suggest that spam really isn't that bad - and while there should be some punishment, it shouldn't be as strict as the penalties for outright fraud. While some anti-spammers may get upset by lenient spam sentences - they should also remember just how poorly written CAN-SPAM is, and realize that it may end up putting non-spammers at risk as well. Update: Of course, in the meantime, CAN-SPAM (as expected) has done nothing to stop the flow of spam, and people are getting increasingly fed up with the difficulty of using email, thanks to all the spam they get.
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  1. identicon
    beck, 17 Mar 2004 @ 10:27pm

    No Computers

    Well if they're not going to get long sentences then they should at least get the same treatment as Kevin Mitnick - no access to computers or the Internet allowed, violation results in jail time.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    thecaptain, 18 Mar 2004 @ 6:54am

    depends on what you mean by light.

    I'm all in favor of using a lighter blade for chopping off various body parts.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    bbay, 18 Mar 2004 @ 11:25am

    No Subject Given

    They've shat all over our network and show no respect for the work of others, and we hate their guts and wish they would die long painful deaths.

    But that's not much of a legal theory. The punishment should be proportional to the damage done by the crime, not to the magnitude of our distaste.

    The punishment should be very light, but each message sent should be a separate charge. So, if you're convicted of 100,000 counts of spamming, and each count carries a sentence of 15 minutes in jail, that's 2.8 years in jail.

    Thus using the economics of spam against them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Chris Reuter, 18 Mar 2004 @ 12:55pm

    I suggest a slap on the wrist.

    One slap per spam sent, that is.

    But seriously, spamming isn't all that bad when compared to, say, murder or even fraud. It's sort of like littering--if only one or two people do it, there's no real harm done but it's a different story when lots of people do it. What's important is that the law make spamming more trouble than it's worth.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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