Mickey Chandler's SpamSuite

Here is the 9th Circuit opinion in USA v. Kilbride, (9th Cir., 2009). This is primarily an obscenity case against the defendants for sending pornographic spam email. But, it also includes a challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 1037 on vagueness grounds.

18 U.S.C. § 1037 is the part of the CAN-SPAM Act that deals with fraud and falsity in headers. And, from appearances, the Defendants were using false information in their registration. One of their arguments (and the Court's response to it) appears as follows:

Defendants also argue that the definition of “material falsification” renders § 1037 unconstitutionally vague specifically as to whether it would criminalize private registration of a domain name. As testified to at trial, private registration is a service that allows registration of a domain name in a manner that conceals the actual registrant’s identity from the public absent a subpoena. We fail to perceive any vagueness on this point. Based on the plain meaning of the relevant terms discussed above, private registration for the purpose of concealing the actual registrant’s identity would constitute “material falsification.” (from page 29 of the PDF)

Attachment	Date	Size
9thCirOpinion.pdf	11/04/09 1:24 pm	157.97 KB