The Supreme Court in Virginia has overturned the conviction of the AOL Spammer Jeremy Jaynes, at the same time the court has rendered Virginia without any Anti-SPAM law by ruling it was unlawful.

 

The Virginia court ruled yesterday that the state's anti-spam law that was designed to prevent the sending of masses of unwanted spam was unlawful as it violates the First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. 

Jaynes a North Carolina resident was convicted in 2004 for junk mail offences after he spammed tens of thousands of AOL users by means of a stolen database of AOL user information. At the time he was rated in the top ten spammers in the world, he was also the first American to be convicted for sending unsolicited bulk email. As he targeted AOL users he was prosecuted in Virginia where AOL was headquartered. When sentenced in 2005 he was given nine years of jail time under the Virginia Anti-SPAM law, it was also claimed that Jaynes made $24 million in sales from his spamming operation.

His conviction was upheld by the Virginia Appeals Court in 2006 when it determined trespassing on private computer networks merited no First Amendment protection.

Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell promptly said the state would appeal the case to the U.S. Suppreme Court. However even with the state law invalidated there is the federal CAN-SPAM act that would offer some protection from the vast tide of unwanted email spam. However, this spammer would not be able to be charged under that law as his criminal activity occurred before it came into force.