[Just4FunNC]

Lawyers challenge Virginia law that led to conviction

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i guess this still belongs in Successful Takedowns.. surely no judge will back these scumbag lawyers that are trying to protect the spammers.

The nation's first convicted illegal spammer wears an ankle bracelet in Northern Virginia, confined to an apartment and allowed out a few hours a week to run errands.

He could be tethered another year or more, said Thomas Wolf, a Richmond attorney who, along with an Arlington-based lawyer, represents Jeremy Jaynes.

As expected, Jaynes' counsel filed an appeal to challenge the constitutionality of Virginia's anti-spam law that put him under house arrest until the case is settled.

Jaynes was convicted last year in Loudoun County Circuit Court for using false Internet addresses to send mass e-mail advertisements through an America Online server in Northern Virginia.

Prosecutors said he used the name Gaven Stubberfield and other aliases to send pornography and to market fake goods -- which thousands of people believed were real -- netting Jaynes up to $750,000 a month.

No crime to distribute
Under state law enacted two years ago, it is not a crime to distribute unsolicited e-mail unless senders lie about their identity. In that case, it is a felony.

In April, Jaynes was handed a nine-year sentence by Judge Thomas Horne. Because the anti-spam law was new and raises constitutional questions, he deferred sentencing until the case is heard by an appeals court.

Wolf filed the petition in the Virginia Court of Appeals on Monday.

"The statute bans not only commercial speech, but unsolicited political speech as well."

"[Under the statute], if you sent an e-mail to every Democrat in Virginia explaining why they should vote Republican, and you disguised your identity to avoid retaliation, you would be committing a felony," Wolf said.

E-mail passing through
The appeal states that the law is not limited to e-mail sent to or from Virginia but also applies to e-mail that passes through the state. Wolf said there was no evidence that Jaynes, of Raleigh, N.C., intended to send messages through Virginia-based servers.

The defense also argues that Jaynes had no knowledge the Virginia law had come into effect when the state alleged the spammings took place on July 16, 19 and 26, 2003. The law went into effect July 1 that year.

"The exact actions that he made were also against the law prior to July 1, but they were in another section," Lisa M. Hicks-Thomas, the prosecutor in the case, said yesterday. The offense was listed under "computer trespass," a misdemeanor.

Richard Campbell, a state deputy attorney general, said: "Mr. Jaynes was breaking the law basically as soon as it was in effect. Now that the law's on the book, you better beware it's there."