A US judge sentenced a man to nine years in prison today for violating anti-spam laws by sending out millions of unsolicited e-mails using fake addresses.I'm against the death penalty, but I think he got off lightly. A 25-year sentence would have been more appropriate, given the amounts involved, the obnoxious behaviour, and the general misery and inconvenience he's caused to millions of people.
Prosecutor Lisa Hicks-Thomas said the circuit judge in Loudon County, Virginia, had accepting the sentencing recommendation of the jury that convicted Jeremy Jaynes, of Raleigh, North Carolina, last November.
[...]
Jaynes, who operated using the alias Gaven Stubberfield, was listed by the anti-spam watchdog group Spamhaus as the eighth most prolific spammer in the world.
Ms Hicks-Thomas said prosecutors calculated that Jaynes took in between $US500,000 and $US750,000 ($653,500 to $980,000) a month through the sale of products through the e-mails.
She said Jaynes also possessed a stolen database of America Online members with some 84 million e-mail addresses.
And a $10 million dollar fine, so he doesn't profit from it. Otherwise a lot of people are going to look at the case, and think "hmmm... a million bucks a year for 9 years of low-security prison time... it might be worth it."
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