[Gamoe]

I was reading this thread, where f1000 quotes a story on how a man convicted of sending SPAM faced enoumous fines and jail time. Now, I know SPAM is annoying, and it might even be a waste of money, but are we really being fair here?

I know these people aren't the greatest but I just find more and more these punishments have been excessive and unfitting of the crime, specially when you think of the truly horrible crimes committed, where as SPAM is merely an annoyance, or a waste of money at worse.

I think we've all blown the whole SPAM issue out of proportion. I think people need to calm down, put down their pitchforks or whatnot and logically think the issue through. I always thought that the justice system should be there for justice, not vengeance, and that incarceration should exist only to protect others from dangerous people, not annoyances or non-violent (or debatable) crimes like sending SPAM.

And then, there comes the relative issue of what is really SPAM. It is quite relative, and I bet everyone's definition of SPAM here is not the same. Don't large corporations SPAM us all the time with a ton of advertising? I find commercials more intrusive than an e-Mail I can delete with the press of a key. I find those AOL CDs incredibly annoying, wasteful and bad for the environment. At least the spammers aren't producing more trash.

There's never been an serious issue about people receiving junk mail or unsolicited mail before-- why so with e-Mail? I agree, I don't like SPAM either, and I do my best to stop it. I am not even opposed to sensible laws against abuse, but unreasonable fines and jail-time seem rather unfair to me. If the worse things I had to deal with were SPAM, my life would be trouble-free.

To be clear, I am not defending spammers, I am saying that I think some of the punishments given to spammers lately have been excessive, and excessive punishment is not justice.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

How did he spam people though? Did he install malware and have their computers also dish out spam?

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

How did he spam people though? Did he install malware and have their computers also dish out spam?

I don't know. That would be a separate issue, though, since it goes beyond simply sending SPAM. However, I am addressing the general issue of SPAM, not this one specifically.

[UNTeMac]

Spam often results in substantial costs for businesses as well as lost productivity. It costs consumers money in blocking it. Spam is also a huge source of viruses and malware. Spam also has an infinitesimal rate of return on the number of emails sent but it costs so little to send out that many that many businesses who need even a little attention use it, and unscrupulously I might add. Go ahead, click that "remove" link at the bottom and see what happens. Spam is just telemarketing on a massive scale for far less cost and far less accountability. String 'em up I say.

[Chuckit]

Let's frame the question differently: What much lesser punishment do you think is all that would be necessary to deter spammers?

[iLikebeer]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

I was reading this thread, where f1000 quotes a story on how a man convicted of sending SPAM faced enoumous fines and jail time. Now, I know SPAM is annoying, and it might even be a waste of money, but are we really being fair here?

I know these people aren't the greatest but I just find more and more these punishments have been excessive and unfitting of the crime, specially when you think of the truly horrible crimes committed, where as SPAM is merely an annoyance, or a waste of money at worse.

I think we've all blown the whole SPAM issue out of proportion. I think people need to calm down, put down their pitchforks or whatnot and logically think the issue through. I always thought that the justice system should be there for justice, not vengeance, and that incarceration should exist only to protect others from dangerous people, not annoyances or non-violent (or debatable) crimes like sending SPAM.

And then, there comes the relative issue of what is really SPAM. It is quite relative, and I bet everyone's definition of SPAM here is not the same. Don't large corporations SPAM us all the time with a ton of advertising? I find commercials more intrusive than an e-Mail I can delete with the press of a key. I find those AOL CDs incredibly annoying, wasteful and bad for the environment. At least the spammers aren't producing more trash.

There's never been an serious issue about people receiving junk mail or unsolicited mail before-- why so with e-Mail? I agree, I don't like SPAM either, and I do my best to stop it. I am not even opposed to sensible laws against abuse, but unreasonable fines and jail-time seem rather unfair to me. If the worse things I had to deal with were SPAM, my life would be trouble-free.

To be clear, I am not defending spammers, I am saying that I think some of the punishments given to spammers lately have been excessive, and excessive punishment is not justice.

Those commercials pay for the content on your television so you don't have to. AOL pays the USPO a bulk rate fee to get those delivered. Spammers pay no one and cost everyone money. They cost time, blocking software, bandwidth, etc. AOL and the like might suck, but if the post office didn't have their business, postage rates would increase. SPAM has absolutely no benefit to anyone(except the spammer) and costs EVERYONE money.

[phantomdragonz]

Spam is an annoyance...

I will not deny that, but the amount of time ONE person cane waste for NUMEROUS people adds up, Time is money after all, so fine the fawk out of em, and make em pay!

Zach

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

And then, there comes the relative issue of what is really SPAM. It is quite relative, and I bet everyone's definition of SPAM here is not the same. Don't large corporations SPAM us all the time with a ton of advertising? I find commercials more intrusive than an e-Mail I can delete with the press of a key. I find those AOL CDs incredibly annoying, wasteful and bad for the environment. At least the spammers aren't producing more trash.

1. Most spam is fraudulent (moneymaking scams, selling pirated software, selling prescription drugs w/o prescription, etc)

2. It wastes time to have to wade through a huge pile of spam just to get to the one useful message in your inbox

3. It wastes a lot of bandwidth to have all this crap constantly being sent in massive volumes

4. Parents don't necessarily appreciate their children constantly receiving ads for hardcore porn, penis enlargement, etc. in their e-mail

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

I was reading this thread, where f1000 quotes a story on how a man convicted of sending SPAM faced enoumous fines and jail time. Now, I know SPAM is annoying, and it might even be a waste of money, but are we really being fair here?

The fines were proportional to what he was making from illegal activities before he was caught. The jail time was for running an illegal online pharmacy.