Re: In re: Spam and Gate Crashing

On Tue, 17 Oct 1995, Steven Prevaux wrote: *snip*
> In this case the posting contained a message, roughly 16
> typewritten pages, that amounted to a commercial advertisement.
> The identity of the spammer is known.
>
> What legal remedies, sounding in copyright or elsewhere, do
> the system administrator or list owner have available?

I recently completed research for an upcoming article in Wired Magazine about state laws that cover just such activity.

In fact, many states have very broadly worded laws which proscribe the unauthorized access to computers, the unauthorized adulteration of data, and other "cyber-crimes."

Most of these laws are under the state's criminal code sections titled "privacy" and "communications" and some have even passed statutes with titles like "Computer Crime Act."

Not knowing where the spammer is, is of course, problematic, as are the obvious jurisdictional issues in prosecuting such crimes.

Charles Glasser
NYU Law 3L
<cjg6159[_at_]is.nyu.edu> Received on Thu Oct 19 1995 - 20:52:49 GMT