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<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5>Anti-Spam Conviction Is
Upheld</FONT></STRONG><BR></DIV>
<DIV>N.C. Man Flooded AOL Customers With Unsolicited E-Mail<BR></DIV>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Candace Rondeaux<BR>Washington Post Staff
Writer<BR>Wednesday, September 6, 2006; B03<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>The Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld yesterday what is believed to be the
first conviction in the nation under a state anti-spamming law that makes it a
felony to send unsolicited mass e-mails.</P>
<P>A North Carolina man was convicted in Loudoun County two years ago of
illegally sending tens of thousands of e-mails to America Online customers.
Prosecutors said Jeremy Jaynes flooded the servers at the Internet company's
headquarters in Loudoun with bulk e-mail advertisements for computer programs
and stock pickers.</P>
<P>Jaynes was sentenced last year to nine years in prison on three counts of
violating the state's anti-spam law and was allowed to remain free on $1 million
bond while his case was appealed. Thomas M. Wolf, an attorney for Jaynes, said
he plans to appeal yesterday's decision.</P>
<P>Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell said in a statement that his
office will ask the court to revoke bond and order Jaynes to begin serving his
sentence. The attorney general applauded the appeals court decision, saying the
three-year-old anti-spam law helps keep Internet users "safe and secure."</P>
<P>"Today's ruling reinforces Virginia's anti-spam act and further protects the
people of the commonwealth from identity thieves and cyber criminals," McDonnell
said.</P>
<P>Jaynes's attorneys argued in their appeal that the Loudoun court had no
jurisdiction over the case because the e-mails were sent from Jaynes's home in
North Carolina. The appeal also contended that the anti-spam law restrains the
constitutional right of free speech protected under the First Amendment.</P>
<P>But the three-judge panel disagreed, ruling in an opinion written by Judge
James W. Haley Jr. that circuit courts have exclusive jurisdiction over felonies
committed in their areas. The anti-spam law, Haley said, "prohibits trespassing
on private computer networks through intentional misrepresentation, an activity
that merits no First Amendment protection."</P>
<P>Wolf argued that the anti-spam statute was too broad. Moreover, he said,
efforts to enforce the law could snare well-intentioned citizens in other states
who send out harmless e-mails under anonymous names that pass through servers in
Virginia.</P>
<P>"You purchase an e-mail address list, alter the transmission information in
the header of your e-mail to avoid retaliation, and on Easter morning send out a
three-word e-mail to thousands of people: 'Christ is risen!' You have committed
a felony in Virginia," Wolf said.</P>
<P>John Whitehead, president of the conservative Rutherford Institute, who along
with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a brief in support of
Jaynes's appeal, agreed, saying yesterday's ruling would have a "chilling
effect" on free speech.</P><!-- start the copyright for the articles -->
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