9-year prison term confirmed for spam king

AFP, April, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A judge sentenced a man to nine years in prison for violating anti-spam laws by sending out millions of unsolicited e-mails using fake addresses, authorities said.

Loudon County, Virginia, Circuit Judge sentenced Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, North Carolina, accepting the recommendation of a jury that convicted him last November, prosecutor Lisa Hicks-Thomas said.

Hicks-Thomas said the sentence under Virginia law was the first prison term in the United States in a spam case, adding that the state law on spam was used to model a federal spam law approved later by Congress.

"It was not just sending bulk e-mails, he was falsifying the routing information, disguising the origin," Hicks-Thomas said.

"The end-user couldn't say 'don't sent...