http://www.technewsworld.com/story/news/42131.html
Prosecutors said Jeremy Jaynes was the mastermind of the operation and made as much as $750,000 a month sending e-mails for products that included a Web history eraser. The spoils helped him buy two homes in Raleigh, including a 5,800-square-foot mansion.
A judge sentenced a man Friday to nine years in prison for clogging the world's computers with millions of junk e-mails.
But he postponed Jeremy Jaynes' incarceration until appeals are exhausted and challenges to the Virginia law used to convict him are resolved.
Jaynes, 30, of Raleigh, N.C., could remain free for years.
Even so, the decision to impose the maximum punishment proposed by a jury in the nation's first felony prosecution of a spammer is likely to embolden prosecutors nationwide.
It shows how important electronic communication has become and society's intolerance for the unwanted messages that disrupt it.
Message to Spammers
"The jury in large measure represents community sentiment," Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne said. The sentence is "a deterrent to stop other people who might send unsolicited mail in this fashion."
Virginia officials shut down one of the world's most prolific spam operations by prosecuting Jaynes. But his conviction in November has not scared others into submission.
Junk e-mail still thrives like uncontrolled weeds, choking computer networks and robbing recipients of time and money. In December 2003, the month Jaynes was arrested, spam accounted for two-thirds of all e-mail, according to estimates by CipherTrust, a message security Get a Free E-Commerce Start-up Kit from Verisign company. In January, the figure was 82 percent.
What's more, spam has become a potent security threat. The messages once known for unwanted get-rich-quick pitches or bedroom performance products are just as likely now to carry viruses that can disable computers. Spammers send e-mail disguised as correspondence from companies to get personal data Latest News about personal data.
"It's definitely gotten more dangerous," said Sara Radicati, chief executive of the Radicati Group, a research firm in Palo Alto.
Law enforcement and companies across the country are pursuing spammers with fresh vigor, aided by new state and federal legislation to stamp out billions of unwanted e-mail messages.
Technological Solution
Critics say the legal efforts are pointless. Better technology, they say, is the solution because it attacks the economics that makes spam lucrative. If spammers can't get messages to mailboxes, the business Meet the server enhanced for Linux®: the new IBM eServer™ OpenPower™ system. loses its appeal.
Jaynes was prosecuted not for pumping out e-mail in bulk but for falsifying information used to route the messages. He was caught under a tough Virginia law that took effect in 2003 and was crafted with the help of industry giants including America Online, whose server Save up to $189 on the HP ProLiant ML110 server. Latest News about Servers he used to send his mass e-mail ads.
The case against Jaynes eventually ensnared his sister, Jessica DeGroot of Apex, N.C., whose conviction was later overturned, and a second man, Richard Rutkowski of Cary, N.C., who was acquitted.
Prosecutors said Jaynes was the mastermind and made as much as $750,000 a month sending e-mails for products that included a Web history eraser. The spoils helped him buy two homes in Raleigh, including a 5,800-square-foot mansion.
10 Million Spams per Day
While prosecutors presented evidence of just 53,000 illegal e-mails, authorities believe Jaynes was responsible for spewing out 10 million e-mails a day.
Jaynes' lawyers on Friday disputed his image as a modern snake-oil salesman. They portrayed him as a compassionate businessman who built homes for the poor and gave to charities.
They presented letters attesting to his character, including one from former North Carolina Attorney General Rufus Edmisten. And they said that Jaynes lacked the wealth described by the prosecution. His bank accounts are depleted, and he owes $1.6 million in federal taxes because of a tax shelter that has been deemed improper, said Jaynes' lawyer, David Oblon.
"I would like to let the court know that I didn't intend to cause harm to anybody," Jaynes said before sentencing, joined in court by his wife, sister, mother and other relatives. "I will never be involved in the e-mail marketing business again."
Oblon argued that Jaynes should serve no time. He said that nine years was far too long given that Jaynes was charged as an out-of-state resident with violating the Virginia law that had taken effect just weeks before.
"We have no doubt that we will win on appeal; therefore, any sentence is somewhat moot. Still, the sentence is not what we recommended and we're disappointed," Oblon said.
But Horne said the offense warranted confinement. He agreed to postpone incarceration because the law used to convict Jaynes remains shaky.
Million Dollar Bond
For now, Jaynes must comply with the terms of the $1 million bond posted after his conviction. He must stay in the country club home he rents in Loudoun County, Va., under electronic surveillance unless his lawyers can win court approval for him to return to Raleigh.
"We're satisfied," said Lisa Hicks-Thomas, an assistant Virginia attorney general whose office has indicted two others under the spam law. "We'll be back here in a few months with some other people."
dance:
Spammer gets 9 years :)
Spammer gets 9 years :) -
04-10-2005, 09:57 AM
Linear Mode
