http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/technology/18spam.html By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 18, 2005 A 25-year-old former employee of America Online was sentenced to a year and three months in prison yesterday after admitting that he became a cyberspace "outlaw" when he sold the screen names and e-mail addresses of 92 million subscribers to spammers "I know I've done something very wrong," the soft-spoken and teary-eyed former employee, Jason Smathers, told Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in New York as he apologized for a theft that resulted in spammers sending up to seven billion unsolicited e-mail messages. "The public at large has an interest in making sure people respect the same values that apply in everyday life on the Internet," David Siegal, an assistant United States attorney, said. A lawyer for Mr. Smathers, Jeffrey Hoffman, said the theft was a "dumb, stupid, insane act" that his client regretted. Mr. Smathers apologized to a half-dozen members of his family who had flown from California and Indiana to attend the sentencing. Judge Hellerstein acknowledged the defendant's contrition and efforts to help the government. Earlier this year, Mr. Smathers had pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a plea deal that had called for a sentence of at least a year and a half in prison. The judge imposed the reduced sentence of one year and three months, saying he recognized Mr. Smathers had cooperated fully but lacked information to build other criminal cases. In a letter to the court that was partially read into the record by Mr. Siegal, Mr. Smathers tried to explain the crimes that AOL has said cost the company at least $300,000 and possibly millions of dollars. Mr. Smathers was fired by AOL in June 2004. The authorities said he used another employee's access code to steal the list of AOL customers in 2003 from the company headquarters in Dulles, Va. He reportedly sold the list to Sean Dunaway, of Las Vegas, who used it to send unwanted gambling advertisements to subscribers of AOL. Charges are pending against Mr. Dunaway. _________________________________________ Attend ToorCon Sept 16-18th, 2005 Convention Center San Diego, California www.toorcon.org
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