jail for spamming is stupid.

50 spammers.

- There are laws against spam

- Your told not to do it or you will be charged with a federal crime

- So you still spam after you know it's illegal because you think you
can pro<i></i>xy yourself invisible but your not smart enough to know you
can't hide on the Web anymore

Now your cryin' after-the-fact because they put spammers in jail?
The law is the law. Obey or off you go to colon stretching land.
No bit<i></i>chin' after about "I didn't mean it daddy".

Why do you think the smart spammers use servers in China.

Yeah they do know it is illegal but it's still locking people up because of sending an email.

here we go agian

What part of "against the law with jail time and fines" and "illegal"
is confusing to you?

Farmer: Yes you can spend the night but don't fuck my daughter
Salesman: Ok, thanks
*night falls*
Daughter: Stick that schmitenhiemer in my foozle
Salesman: Fuckin' A!!!
*fuck noises*
*door opens*
Farmer: BANG! BANG!
Daughter: Daddy, why did you shoot him?

So you and the daughter need more explaining about the rules?

Nothin. What made me post this thread is that there is a law in some countries that is locking people up for sending email.

Send them all to jail. Anyone with the capacity to hijack servers and hide behind a network of proxies has enough skills to get a job in a different (read: non-replusive) line of work - unlike, say, the average telemarketer that calls, whom I hate just as much but feel strangely sympathetic towards.

Spammers annoy and disrupt millions of people on a daily basis for the sake of a few bucks in their own pocket. They're the personification of greed and selfishness. If the public decides these people are best suited outside of society - well... good for society. Hopefully law enforcement can enact large enough fines and acquire enough forfeited personal property to cover the cost of the incarceration.

That said, I believe the PC term is "high-volume email deployers" now.

Heh, so they've dropped "opt-in bulk contact mailer".

Ah so you're the type of person that if someone says don't do it, you don't do it. So just because the law says lock people up, you don't understand that maybe it's wrong to lock people up just because they send some email. Because that's what this is about, not wether they do know it's illegal or not.

they need to make examples out of people

IF you cant do the time dont do the crime

And dont forget spammers dont get locked up in the same place as killers and rapist. A spammer isnt going to a level 5 max or a level 6 control unit. They have places for white collar non violent crinimals.

But they still suck. And those walls will close in on you and make you feel like less of a human being.

BEWARE!! Stop while your ahead spammers.

Don't diminish the source. It's not 'someone' saying "don't do it", it's a law saying "don't do it".

If one chooses to ignore that law, one should be prepared to accept the consequences. I might ignore speeding laws but you're unlikely to find me selling heroin. The potential consequences vary a bit. I prepared to accept the consequences for a speeding ticket, but not prepared for a distribution of heroin charge. Ultimately a society determines the consquences based on priorities. Spamming has reached epidemic levels and continues to escalate. Society is responding, or so it would appear.
Again, don't trivilize. It's not quite so benign as "they send some email". They send millions upon millions of emails carefully crafted to bypass filters, blacklists and a email user's own decision (how many "Account Past Due" spams have you received?). They're not sending some email, they're making deliberate and conscious efforts to intrude upon users who clearly seek to avoid these intrusions.

Back to your question... you'll no doubt find a range of opinions on what is and is not acceptable consequences. That will be the case with almost any law. My personal opinion is I have no sympathy whatsoever towards spammers. I loathe them for their greed and arrogance. I couldn't possibly be less concerned with what happens to them so long as what does occur to them ensures less spam in my inbox.