Internet spam king Jeremy Jaynes has been found guilty of three offences in a Virginia court, and the jury has recommended a sentence of nine years!!! Sentencing has been set down for February, when the judge will have the option to go with the jury’s recommendation, or reduce the sentence.
So, what do people think of the sentence? On the one hand, i’m laughing my ass off. I fucking hate spammers with a seething passion. On the other hand, that’s a pretty stiff sentence for sending emails. Hell, some people get less than that for violent crimes. Either way, though, i’m not going to be crying any tears for Jaynes.
So, what’s your verdict. Should the judge stick with the nine years, or reduce the sentence?
BTW, i notice that Jaynes’s lawyer is arguing that, because Jaynes is a resident of North Carolina, he was unaware of the Virigina law against sending more than 100,000 emails per month, and against “sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.” I have always been under the impression that ignorance of the law was not generally considered a reasonable defense. Is this actually the case?
the penalty is not strong enough imho, i’d start by confiscating his computer hardware and incinerating it with thermite, put him in jail for life in the nastiest section of the general population and let him get a dose of “prison justice”
that or <topic not permitted> him
i have no pity or love for spammers, scum of the earth if you ask me, right up there with politicians and insurance adjusters
let him rot in prison, no access to computers (or at least computers too old to connect to the internet, lets say an old Trash-80 model 1 )
Also not much sympathy for spammers, but I agree with you; the penalty does seem a bit harsh for a non-violent crime. I would prefer he be fined extremely harshly so that future income for at least nine years goes to pay off the fine. The fine should go into a trust account to reimburse those who were victims of his spams (although I also don’t have much sympathy for people who actually believe spam). And he should perform some type of community service. It would be grand if he had to do PSAs on spam and how to avoid getting taken by it.
“I’m Jeremy Jaynes and I’m here to tell you that you’re stuck with your penis size.”
If this BBC article is right, it would have to be a pretty big fine:
That’s a fucking lot of money. I can’t believe so many people are moronic enough to actually buy this shit. I mean, look at the crap he was peddling. From the article i linked to in the OP:
…is there any chance they can widen these laws to apply to pop up advertisements?
I suppose this is only to be expected with a crime that annoys the average person so much. If putting bubblegum on elevator buttons or other annoying behavior were criminalized, you would see some juror venting, you can bet.
(Seriously, I’d rather fine him. Get money off of him instead of spending money on keeping him in jail.)
It wasn’t so much that it was spam as it was that he was defrauding people. The spam made it so that he could attempt to defraud tens of thousands at the same time. At $24.99 a pop to amass almost $25 million, that is one hell of a lot of fraud.
Sloth begets stupidity? Those are the ones to whom I feel least sympathetic. While I’m out busting my ass for a little under $9 an hour, others feel that sitting on their asses is worth $75 an hour? For that, you’d better be blowing someone.
Having thought a bit more on this, I should specify that I don’t think people ought to be reimbursed fully for their errors in judgment, in this case. Maybe only five percent or something since they share culpability with the criminal (and the victims need a lesson, too). Let’s see, that’d be about $20k in restitution for that one spam. Taking a percentage of his future income, it should only take a few years to make it up. And the victims would be reminded again years later how stupid they were when they receive their $2 check in the mail from the court. How’s that?
Confiscate every last penny he has, garnish everything he ever will have, 25 years in the pen, and tattoo his crime on his forehead, so if he ever gets out people will know what he did and can spit on him!
On my list of concerns about unfairness in the judicial system, Spam Guy is pretty much at the bottom. I do hope that every penny he made is taken from him and used for something positive like helping victims of crimes. I’d also like to see him prohibited from ever using the Internet again.
Presumably, the spammers would have a record of those who actually responded to the spams. Could such information not be used to track these people down and have them shot as a service to the community?
Trying to think of an appropriate punishment for a spammer. Hmmmmm, his crime involves the taking of other peoples time as well as a substantial drain on internet CPU time. Let me think… How about 3 seconds of prison time for every second of incovenience he as caused. Or a hand written apology to every person he has spammed.
