What sort of punishment does this man desirve?

Man described as a top spammer arrested

By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs WriterThu May 31, 8:02 AM ET

A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

“He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company’s Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. “He’s a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day.”

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that — even with four bank accounts seized by the government — he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer.

He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp.

A public defender who represented him for Wednesday’s hearing declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called “zombies” because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.

He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else’s Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.

The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization.

The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Department of Social Services said it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and other businesses and individuals complained of having their reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their computers.

“This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance,” Warma said.

Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.

People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.

The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest.

“Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet — both in terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam service,” organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org.

Soloway remained in federal detention pending a hearing Monday.

How do I increase tourists to a small isolated island of the irish coast for free using the internet?

I would like to help out friends on a small island of the coast of Ireland, they have regular ferry service in summer, fantastic scenery, one hotel, one hostel, one cafe, one shop, and all night drinking and dancing and music at the island club house. Was thinking in terms of using youtube videos to market it, social networking, and a website.

Any Ideas would be appriciated, thanks
I basically want cheap if not free ways of marketing the island, as I am not being payed myself. Tourist numbers are down due to the resession, and want to get visitos going there again, as there is no form of employment on the Island other that tourist services. I was thinking about targeting the watersports market in terms of kayaking around the island, and stag / hen night market for a nights partying with no closing time, and maybe stressed out business people that want to get away from it all for a weekend or a week, and experience irish Island life, traditions and musical culture?

How to promote training courses on survival in the Amazon, a river cruiser and a travel agency in Internet?

I need to promote four (4) specialized products and I require advice from people with experience in online marketing and those people that are responsible for the area of promotion, marketing or sales of travel agencies and tourism companies that offer survival courses and cruises. This company is located in Iquitos, an exotic city in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon, one of the least explored and most bio-diverse area in the world. The products I have to help to promote are:

1. Training courses on survival in the Amazon jungle, for companies or adventure travelers.

2. Visits to remote indigenous communities that preserve their customs, for anyone interested.

3. Research or study trips in the Peruvian Amazon, for researchers, students and anyone interested.

4. Travel by river cruises along the Amazon river and tributaries or cruises in Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve (the largest reserve in the floodable Amazon jungle in South America).

These are quality products. The company respect and teach the travelers to respect the nature. They take medical help or supplies to river communities and indigenous tribes they visit. Trips are designed to understand the nature and their ecosystems.

This company works with professional and specialized staff as naturalists and, in case of survival training courses, with instructors of the Air Force.

The company weakness is the international promotion and that is my challenge.

I have had successful experiences in promoting hotels. But I never promoted this type of product. Therefore, I have several questions:

A. Where or in what ways should I promote these four products?

B. What websites, especially free of charge, you known to promote these products? In hotels, for example, there are sites like Tripadvisor and others.

C. Do you know websites and forums that are focused on “selling” the four travel products I have?

D. What social networks focused on these products are available? I know that there are Facebook, Twiter, Flirck, but, do you know any social network for adventure travelers or interested in this kind of trips?

E. I was considering using the Lonely Planet, Viajeros and Losviajeros forums. Do you know others forums or specialized forums? Regardless of language.

F. Does anyone could help me with the contact details of publishers of travel guides (Lonely, Frommers, Footprints, etc.)?

G. I was thinking in contact with TV and film producers or film makers to promote the services of the company and be a strategic partners for films in the Amazon. Where and how I may contact with big producers companies as Discovery, NatGeo, BBC, etc., and with small producers?

Do you have any other recommendation?

If liberals and conservatives could each create their own utopian societies, which would be better to live in?

Help me out here, but a few things I could think of are. LIBS would probably want free healthcare. Lot’s of public art museums. Free and open expression of sexual persuasion. Little electric cars. No smelly factories. No taxes for anyone making less than $100,000 a year. Free abortion clinics. Free college tuition. Minimum wage set high enough that everyone would be able to afford their own home. Unarmed “Peace patrols” rather than a police force. Preferential treatment for minorities. Generous welfare system. Open borders to all who share their dreams. Small if any military. The CONS. would probably want Limited government intrusion except for public infrastructure, police, fire etc. A flat tax or consumption tax only. Faith based or community based social network of education and welfare. Expectation that individuals pay for the goods and services that they consume. Expectation of high degree of personal responsibility and social order . Very limited acess to abortion. Works of art would have to have a certain ammount of artistic merit because like everything else in this society; people are only going to pay for it what the market determines that it’s worth. No mandated preferential treatment; pay and position based on merit and hard work. Strong military. A selective immigratin policy. I’m sure there are many other Ideals that folks would want for their dream society. What else should be included? where would you want to live?

I have a Master of IT, wanna operate my own business “Web Solution” but what next degree to learn?

I have a master of IT, and I can say that I know a lot of skills related to IT especially Web. And I am thinking to operate my own business like providing hosting service, web design, etc and if possible, I wanna create a new social network site (for my own country). One of many obvious obstacles is how to start the business, from which point? Really, I don’t have any background on business or marketing. I think I need to learn more but which degree fits to solve my problem? As you know many degree related to business, but which one is the best for me?

Please don’t give me a trash. Thank you.