This jars with the nine-year prison sentence recently handed down to Jeremy Jaynes, convicted in Virginia of sending vast amounts of spam e-mail through AOL's servers.
In April, Jeremy Jaynes, considered among the world's top-ten spammers, got a nine-year prison sentence in America for using false e-mail addresses and aliases to send mass e-mails (though the sentence was suspended pending an appeal).
Even if he had been convicted of fraud then it would be rather excessive, and Jaynes must wonder why sending e-mails is treated so seriously when leaking personal data - and giving identity criminals the opportunity to steal money and wreck people's credit ratings - is seen as a matter for the free market.