ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 22 (UPI) -- A judge in Washington Tuesday rejected a guilty plea from an ex-employee of America Online Inc. accused of stealing 92 million screen names and e-mails.
The former software engineer wanted to use the subscriber data in an Internet marketing scheme.
The Washington Post said the federal judge was not convinced that Jason Smathers's actions violated a new law aimed at the marketers who each year send out billions of unwanted advertisements through e-mail.
Smathers, who worked at AOL's Dulles, Va., headquarters, was accused in June of taking the e-mail addresses of nearly all the company's subscribers in May 2003.
The complaint said Smathers sold the names to another man in Las Vegas, who then resold the addresses to Internet marketers, known as spammers. Prosecutors said those marketers then sent out ads for herbal sexual aids.
