US duo in first spam conviction

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3981099.stm

Like any other email user, I HATE SPAM. But I have to wonder about news like this....9 years in jail? From what I have read, the penalty for manslaughter ranges from 3-15 years in Virginia which puts the 9 years for spamming in perspective.

Will this be a deterrrent to future spammers? Judging by the number of "fake Rolex" spam I have been receiving lately - NO.

Speaking of perspective...

When I read the news for the first time, this is how I looked : . Then I thought to myself, "Aww... only 9 years?".

I think I've mentioned it before somewhere but I get very little spam over the years simply because I am extra careful with my important email addresses. However, off the few spam I receive daily, the bulk of it comes from the email address listed in my domain whois records. It used to be an email address off BIGFOOT.COM.

Recently I changed that to an address off GMAIL.COM and I am happy to announce that their spam protection is simply magnificent. I get perhaps ONE spam a fortnight if the spammer is lucky (and that is efficiently stored in the SPAM folder and out of sight). Another good reason to use gmail!

I think 6 months would be enough

Here's another interesting story.

ISP Awarded $1 Billion in Anti-Spam Suit

WOW!!!! That's one small step for for spam, one giant leap for mankind!

I agree completely...i would kill spammers with my bare hands if i knew who they were...nothing irretates me more than spam and spyware

And as for me it's too cruel, the murderer can be jailed for 9 years, and in this case nobody died.
Yes, i hate spamming, but at the same time I am sure that several months would be enough ??:

I disagree. Make a lot of money by spamming and get a slap on the wrist? What's the incentive to not spam again? All you get is a few months vacation. The penalty needs to be hefty -- a major fine and at least a couple years.

Anyway, even the 9 years hasn't helped. Yeaterday I had 18 emails about stocks and equity sprinkled in amongst the drug and girlie spam. Heck, once they get in jail, they should be on a Spam(r) diet for the duration!

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How do you get special characters on the board? Like cent, tm and registered symbols?

You mean like this:
¢, £, GIDForums™ ?

It's magic

Actually, if you run Windows, you can use a small tool called Character Map to copy and paste the symbols.
I asked Jds about this and he suggested copying the symbols from a web page - maybe better solutions will be available in the future.

Oh, you can get GIDForums™ just by typing g f o r u m s (minus the blank spaces), but for the rest I don't have any other ideas...

Best regards,
Lucian

Yes Lucian is right, that is the only way to get those symbols inside your posts on a vbulletin forum (atleast until someone corrects me).