Robert Alan Soloway has pled guilty to mail and email fraud on March 14, 2008 in Seattle’s District Court.  Soloway became notorious as the “Spam King” due to the tens of millions of spam messages his company sent out between November 2003 and May 2007 in support of his company’s websites, products, and services.  Not only did the messages contain misleading header information, but they also compromised computer networks with infectious malware.  Soloway could receive up to 20 years in prison and over a half a million dollars in fines upon sentencing.

Do you think Soloway should be given the maximum prison sentence and fines, or is the punishment too harsh?  Do you think the prison sentence and fines will help deter future spammers?