Volume II

Issue : 9: April 29, 2004

• The Use of Video Surveillance by Employer Violates PIPEDA
• U.S. Court Upholds Prison Term in Online Pharmacy Case
• U.S. Appeals Court Finds Registered Trade Mark Generic for Purposes of ACPA
• FCC VoIP Ruling Could Cost AT&T Billions
• Canadian Phone Companies Protest CRTC's VoIP Opinion
• Sex.com Dispute Finally Settles
• German Open Source Proponent Obtains Order Enforcing GNU General Public License
• U.S. Court of Appeals Overturns Decision on Disgruntled Homebuyer's Website
• Court Upholds Enforceability of Clickwrap Agreement that Was Accepted Under Protest
• Criminal Charges Filed for First Time under U.S. Spam Legislation

Home > Volume II > Issue 9: April 29, 2004 > Criminal Charges Filed for First Time under U.S. Spam Legislation

Criminal Charges Filed for First Time under U.S. Spam Legislation

Criminal charges have been filed for the first time under the U.S. CAN SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing), which came into effect on January 1, 2004, against four residents of West Bloomfield, Michigan. The accused were charged with disguising their identities in hundreds of thousands of Emails for fraudulent weight loss products and using unprotected computers on the Internet as relays. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission claims to have received over 10,000 complaints about the unwanted Emails. It is alleged that the accused operated a sophisticated spam operation, which targeted millions of Email users and involved a complex web of corporate identities, bank accounts and electronic storefronts.

For more information, visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50999-2004Apr28.html
For a copy of the legislation, visit:
http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html