God I love America! You're right, ONLY HERE IN AMERICA - Page 3

pwd72s · 10-02-2007, 07:02 PM

Perhaps it's like what a friend who lived in Switzerland for some years wrote me...Rape a Swiss Bankers wife, and he might shrug his shoulders while surmising that she may have enjoyed herself. Screw with his bank's money? He'd be demanding the death penalty.

I feel no sorrow for the sentence given the spammers....none at all.

legion · 10-02-2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by on-ramp

you mean since they made their "contribution" , they get to spam people with a pass and no accountability, while on the other hand, this guy gets 60 years?

sounds fair

That's exactly what I'm saying.

on-ramp · 10-02-2007, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion

That's exactly what I'm saying.

it's nice to know we have equal protection under the law...

legion · 10-02-2007, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by on-ramp

it's nice to know we have equal protection under the law...

Are we agreeing about something? I have mixed feelings about this.

SLO-BOB · 10-02-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlowToady

BOB, it might just be me, but I doubt it. This country is going downhill. All the Big Brother stuff, all the government scandals. The war. The injustices in the justice system. The constant scandals (private sector). The moral decline. List goes on...Basically I'm seeing a once great country, falling...you don't have to agree.

My friend, it's not falling, and our "once" only spans a couple of centuries. We're infants compared to just about anywhere else. If you look at our history, I'm not so sure this is the worst we've seen. Slavery, a Civil war, racism, assasinations, things that we haven't heard of from our past that would probably make us shudder.

My point is, what is bothering you also bothers some people from some other lands about their countries. That is if they are lucky. There are those that have far greater concerns about their government than we ever will. Turn on CNN right now and there will be plenty of examples of that.

As human beings, I believe we all (all countries-most men) strive to improve but will always fall short. You and I live in a great country but, Lord knows, it is deeply flawed. Happily, the flaws are still news. We still get pissed when this stuff happens. Lets talk about falling when this kind of stuff is acceptable.

WolfeMacleod · 10-02-2007, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by on-ramp

you're right , 60 years is kinda harsh for just sending email. 1-3 years would be more fair.

Sorry, I have to disagree here. For the amount of money that spammers make, I would GLADLY spend a couple years in prison. 1-3 years isn't going to sway them one stinking bit.
These guys are sending out millions, every day. Writing viruses, infecting millions of computers. Slowing the internets, DDOS attacks on networks, crashing mail servers. Ever wonder why you can't get your legitimate email? It's because the servers are processing - you guessed it - SPAM.

Spam is considered a gateway crime, much like pot being considered a gateway drug. Many spammers move on to identity theft, fraud, etc... which are some of the charges against Robert Alan Soloway.

Here's an article on Soloway at www.spamhaus.org:

On May 30, 2007 Robert Alan Soloway, one of the most persistent professional spammers, was indicted by a grand jury in Seattle, Washington, on charges that include fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. The indictment followed a years-long joint investigation by the Washington State Attorney General's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service Department of Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Soloway has been a long term nuisance on the internet. He has been sending enormous amounts of spam for years, filling mailboxes and mail servers with unsolicited and unwanted junk email. In addition, he has fraudulently marketed his spam services to others as legitimate 'opt-in' services when they were anything but that, duping innocent users and then failing to provide promised customer support or refunds. Because Soloway spammed through hijacked computers and open proxies, he has repeatedly violated both the Computer Abuse and Fraud Act of 1984 and the CAN-SPAM law of 2003.

Soloway first appeared in the Spamhaus Block List (SBL) in 2001. In 2003, he was listed on Spamhaus's Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO), a list of the world's "worst of the worst" criminal spammers. Spamhaus spamtraps continued to receive spam solicitations from Soloway advertising his services through the weekend before today's indictment.

Soloway's violations of the U.S. CAN-SPAM law and various state anti-spam laws resulted in his being sued successfully by a number of plaintiffs, including Microsoft Corporation and Robert Braver, owner of an Oklahoma-based ISP. Both Microsoft and Braver received damage awards of millions of dollars. Soloway never paid these awards, claiming that he lived off of the proceeds of a family trust and was therefore "judgement-proof." In September 2005 in Oklahoma City, after Soloway had fired his lawyers and then failed to appear to represent himself in court, U.S. District Judge Ralph G. Thompson issued a permanent injunction against Soloway, forbidding him to continue sending spam that violated the CAN-SPAM act. Soloway ignored this injunction as well and continued to spam.

Today, Soloway was arrested and brought before the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, where he was indicted on multiple counts of money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud, and identity theft by a federal grand jury. If convicted of all charges, he could theoretically face up to 65 years in prison. Although his custodial sentence if convicted is likely to be substantially less than 65 years, he nonetheless faces a significant stay in the U.S. federal penitentiary system.

Spamhaus commends the Seattle FBI and U.S. Attorney for ensuring that the indictment contains both spam-related and non-spam-related counts, and on preparing an indictment which shows so clearly the profile of the typical spammer's activities, such as fraud, identity theft, and other online deception. Spamhaus recognises that a successful prosecution requires careful preparation which inevitably takes longer than the victims of the crime wish. Careful preparation is essential in cases involving CAN-SPAM violations, since the CAN-SPAM Act does not yet have extensive case-law to support it.

Spamhaus is also pleased to note that Soloway's arrest warrant recognizes that he is a serious flight risk, in light of his history of bragging that he is judgement-proof and able to move quickly to avoid prosecution.

Soloway's ROKSO records provide a detailed picture of his spam operation, including evidence of Soloway hiring virus authors to create networks of spam zombies. Although Soloway's public behavior has been more egregious than many spammers, his spam-related activities are similar to those of many of the world's top spammers. Spamhaus hopes that his prosecution proves to be the first of many such prosecutions.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Fry Him!!!!