Going After The Assets Of Spammers

from the hit-'em-in-their-wallets dept

With all the recent talk about whether or not there's an effective way to legislate against spam, Virginia has come up with their own state law that some are saying is the toughest anti-spam law around. The major difference is that Virginia's law allows the government to seize the assets of those who are spamming, while also throwing spammers in jail for up to five years on a felony conviction. To prevent this law from going overboard and tossing people who just made an innocent mistake in jail - the law doesn't kick in unless the person sends at least 10,000 copies of the email or makes over $1,000 from the spam. I can still see how this might accidentally catch people who aren't really spamming. Either way, the law is unlikely to do any good if the spammers don't get caught. Also, as anti-spam as I am (and, I'm pretty damn anti-spam), I wonder if the penalty is a bit excessive for the crime. Five years in jail on a felony conviction seems a bit harsh.

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