Washington State Appeals Court Upholds Anti-Spam Law

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

02 July 2004

The Washington State Court of Appeals this week upheld a lower court ruling against the first business ever to be taken to court under the state's anti-spam laws.

Oregon resident Jason Heckel, offering an internet 'get rich quick' scheme under the business name of Natural Instincts, was charged by the state authorities in 1998 over spam e-mails sent to Washington state residents.

Although Mr Heckel did not dispute that he had sent the e-mails, he argued that he had no way of knowing for certain the destination of his bulk mailings, and that the state law at that time violated the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution.

Upholding a 2002 ruling on the matter which ordered Mr Heckel to pay around $100,000 in fines and costs, Judge Faye C. Kennedy wrote on behalf of the three judge appeals court panel, arguing that under the interpretation of the law put forward by the Natural Instinct legal team "no spammer sending deceptive e-mail could ever violate the act as long as he were to use a bulk e-mail program to harvest large numbers of addresses without regard to residence of the owners".

Federal anti-spam legislation came into force in January of this year, and hundreds of alleged spammers have so far been accused of violations.

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