[arin-discuss] ARIN billing practice

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Spam may not be a crime in all countries that ARIN has jurisdiction over.

However, please keep in mind ARIN is not above the law.  See:

https://www.arin.net/about_us/corp_docs/artic_incorp.html

ARIN is incorporated as a non-profit in the US as such they must
file tax returns (whether or not they pay taxes is unimportant)
and must hold on to all supporting documentation that proves that
they have received the payments that make up their financials.
As such, ARIN may not simply shred documentation from payments
from spammers, even though said spammers may vanish due to their
bogus companies disappearing.  ARIN must retain this in case
of tax audit.

All of this information is available to any lawyer in the US
that bothers to file a subpoena, whether for criminal charges
against a spammer under CAN-SPAM or under the fraud statues
of any state.  The information is there if it's wanted.

I would submit that the reason you do not see a lot of activity in
prosecuting spammers in the US is that to put it simply, there's
no money in it.  Lawyers and prosecutors must get paid, and our
various federal and state governments in the US usually do not go after
white collar criminals unless there's a chance that they can obtain
a significant monetary fine, or civil settlement.

If your a citizen of the US your free to write your A.G. and
other elected representative and tell them to get cracking on
the spam problem.

Ted

Sean Cheesman wrote:
> My bad.  I thought the CAN-SPAM act allowed for criminal charges against companies that don't comply with regulation.  Guess I'm living in an alternate universe...
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#Criminal_enforcement
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Anthony Kinsey [mailto:jer at mia.net] 
> Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 5:29 PM
> To: Sean Cheesman
> Cc: David Farmer; Owen DeLong; arin-discuss at arin.net
> Subject: Re: [arin-discuss] ARIN billing practice
> 
> 
> On Sep 21, 2009, at 3:50 PM, Sean Cheesman wrote:
> 
>> Maybe I'm just simplifying this too much, but why doesn't ARIN just  
>> do everything possible (Articles of Incorporation, verification of  
>> identity, etc) so that when spammers do misuse these blocks the  
>> authorities actually have good contact information for those  
>> responsible?  As it was said, ARIN is not a policing body, but that  
>> doesn't mean that they can't enact policies that will help those  
>> that can police.
> 
> 
> While I can appreciate your intentions and frustration, last I checked  
> spam was not a crime.  Annoying, yes, illegal?  No.
> 
> Besides all  this is going to do is entice people to submit more bogus  
> info.
> 
> -jer
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