Anti-Spam Conviction Undone

A judge has thrown out one of the first anti-spam felony convictions in the U.S. The defendant was originally found guilty under a Virginian law designed to stop spam email.

The point of contention was that members of the jury may have been confused by technical terms used in the trial. There were also concerns about potential ambiguity in the legislation. My own suspicion is that there were Incredimail users involved.

The Virginian law was the first to provide for jail sentences for spam offenders. The brother and sister team were accused of sending over 100 thousand spam emails in 2003. They used AOL owned servers to carry out their mailings.

The jury initially suggested that the pair should server up to 9 years behind bars and fined over $7000. An additional party was found not guilty.

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