At least one spammer will be going to jail. It is jail time plus a significant amount to financial restitution:

“NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Brooklyn man was sentenced to more than two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty last year to sending unsolicited “spam” emails to about 1.2 million subscribers of Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX) America Online.

At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan sentenced Adam Vitale to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release. He also was ordered to pay restitution of more than $183,000 to AOL.”

link: Brooklyn Man Sentenced To 30 Months in Prison In AOL Spam Case

This financial repayment is just a small indication of the insidious damage of spam. If there were daily headlines of such convictions and sentencing, there might be a dent in the amount of local spam. However, the lack of international treaties to stop spammers in foreign countries gives these people a feeling that they are untouchable. And, in some parts of the planet, they do operated with very few legal concerns.

Catherine Forsythe