I agree, let him rot.

Spam is one of the worst diseases of the 21st century.

I favour the 50 cent solution.

1 50 cent bullet to the back of the head.

Never cost any one money ever again.

Never p.o. another person just to benifit his own bank account.

Problem solved.

The question is, does the crime fit the punishment? Decades in prison? That's ridiculous.

The guy's obviously a jerk who happily gained by annoying other people. But shank15217 is right in that this is a minor criminal act compared to murder, rape, or armed robbery.

Make him spend a couple years in a low-security prison as punishment, then give him a mid-level salary government job tracking and busting other spammers.

Didn't anyone see Catch Me If You Can?

The answer is simple: make him pay then pay him to make others pay. That way he gets punished but his unique talents and knowledge don't go to waste.

Maintaining somebody in a correctional facility for 'decades' costs me, the taxpayer, serious $$$.

Here's a crazy idea: Spend some of that substantial pot of money on an education campaign, informing taxpayers not to follow the dodgy links they see in their email each morning and not to hand over their credit card details.

I also agree with some of the other posters. Use this guy's talents/connections to help fight spam or turn in the other spammers. I'd reckon he'd know more than you or I about the location/activities/methods of the other top 10 guys.

He didn't kill anybody or take away people's life savings. He spammed the internet and helped created a class of applications that that just focus on reducing spam. He helped create a whole new software economy and gave us IT people some more meaning to our meaning less lives. Get real.. the guy is bad but there are far worse people in this world.

I hope to freaking all that is holy he's locked up with people that bought all those damn enlargment pills they advertise in my inbox...either way it'll be amusing for me.

Yawn, two more will just take his place.

Anyone convicted of turning someone else's computer into a zombie should be neutered and jailed with sex offenders for life. Give them a taste of their own medicine!

I'm not a big fan of prisons. They're expensive to run. I think we should bring back the stocks and public shaming. Maybe make a criminal zoo or something, where you can laugh, point, and throw feces.

Of course, for spammers, there's always good old fashioned torture.

The problem with most criminals is that they've tasted "easy money" and won't be happy with an honest living.

If convicted, he should be forced to work designing anti-spam methods.

Given the choice of "work for an honest living" or "rot in jail" I'd choose the former.

Die spammer, Die!

Jail for decades, just for spamming !!!!

What a stupid court is this !!!

"...his arrest could cause a noticeable decrease in the amount of junk e-mail circulating world-wide. "

What a scumbag.

The amount of spam he has sent out should be the number of times he gets punched in the face by amature boxers.

I was wondering where my h3|2|34l V149|24 was for today.

He should be attached to a computer connected to shock pads attached to his feet and required to delete x number of emails per minute or else get zapped. At the very least, think of the millions and millions of dollars in lost productivity because of people like him.

IHMO, I think a more fitting punishment would be forcing the spammers to manually remove spam on your typical mail server for 10-20 years.

Greed can go too far. This guy really went overboard it seems.

Question though... how come the companies that buy his services aren't getting sued or pursued legally? Are companies treated as individuals for issues like voting and lobbying, but collective entities when they hire thugs and thieves like this?

Seems like a nice arrangement that makes them almost above the law. The staff involved in such companies should be held accountable as well or something.

Perhaps his jailmates will make him reconsider whether "breaking walls with one's penis" (per the spam emails) is a good thing? :-D

I approve this message.

"Decades"? How about centuries? :evil:

Excellent, let him rot in there!