Ether-slime poses slippery legal questions

The Virginian-Pilot
May 11, 2008

THEY'RE CREEPY and they're skanky. They're odious and icky. They make us really cranky. We all love to hate spam.

Few people get the warm First Amendment fuzzies as they're deleting dozens of promotions for anatomical enhancements and erotic limericks from their e-mail inbox.

But there are free speech issues to be considered as states try to crack down on those obnoxious spammers. The Virginia Supreme Court decided last week to plunge into the ether-slime and sort out some of the questions raised by the Old Dominion's anti-spam law.

Earlier this year, the justices upheld the high-profile conviction of notorious spammer Jeremy Jaynes, who prosecutors say unleashed more than 10 million fraudulent messages daily during his heyday in 2003....read more