Wednesday, October 27

If You Can't Do the Time - The Washington suburb of Loudon is hosting the nation's first-ever felony trial for spamming. Virginia passed the unprecendented legal sanction against "unsolicited bulk e-mail" in 2003 as part of its on-going efforts to genuflect to Dulles corporate resident AOL. If convicted, the three defendents from North Carolina could face up to 15 years in prison. Their lawyer hopes to get the law thrown out: "Marketing via the Internet is not a crime," he said. "It may be annoying to you. . . . It is not a crime." I guess we'll see.