PAPER CHASE NEWSBURSTDigest RSS feedFull RSS feed
Serious law. Primary sources. Global perspective.


Saturday, March 01, 2008

Virginia high court upholds first US felony spam conviction
Kiely Lewandowski at 10:32 AM ET

Photo source or description
[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Virginia [official website] on Friday upheld the nation's first felony conviction for computer spamming, rejecting admitted spammer Jeremy Jaynes' appeal of a lower court ruling [JURIST report] that Virginia's anti-spamming statute [text] does not violate the First Amendment or the so-called dormant Commerce Clause of the US Constitution and is not unconstitutionally vague. The court held that Jaynes did not have standing to bring a First Amendment challenge to the law for overbreadth and that his other arguments were without merit.

In the ruling [PDF text], the court wrote:
There is no question in this case that Jaynes' e-mails "propose a commercial transaction," and are thus some form of commercial speech. As noted earlier, Jaynes makes no claim that his commercial speech, on its own merits, is entitled to any First Amendment protection. Just as clearly, it is self-evident that Jaynes' e-emails are misleading because each contained intentionally false and inaccurate routing and header information intended to shield Jaynes from accountability for his sales schemes. Jaynes does not contest the e-mail routing and header information was false. Thus, Jaynes' commercial speech would fail the initial requirement for First Amendment review.
Jaynes was sentenced [JURIST report] to nine years in prison in 2005 but the sentence was stayed pending appeals. AP has more.



Link | |  | print | subscribe | RSS feeds | latest newscast | Facebook page

For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often...


LATEST LEGAL NEWS

 FBI charges 14 more in Galleon Group insider trading scandal
1:23 PM ET, November 7

 Taiwan high court rules prostitution law unconstitutional
1:16 PM ET, November 7

 HRW claims Iran police sexually assaulted detainees held after election protests
12:42 PM ET, November 7

 click for more...

Get JURIST legal news on your intranet, website, blog or news reader!

LATEST FORUM

Beyond Guantanamo

Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham
US Army (ret.)

ABOUT

Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format.

CONTACT

Paper Chase welcomes comments, tips and URLs from readers. E-mail us at JURIST@pitt.edu