Interestingly enough another "Spam King", Edward "Eddie" Davidson, simply walked out of a minimum security facility in Colorado about the same time Soloway was sentenced. Davis allegedly made $3.5 million spamming for about 20 commercial clients. Like Soloway, he failed to pay any taxes on the proceeds of his misdeeds.

Unfortunately neither Soloway's conviction or Davidson's escape is unlikely to make much of a dent in spam anytime in the near future. Earlier this month, Symantec reported blocking 3.5 million spam messages over the Fourth of July holiday. Their monthly spam report reported that over 80 percent of all e-mail sent is spam. The 80 percent statistic (and greater) has been a sad fact for several months now.

Notable trends on the last report included using the China earthquake to spread viruses and the use of fake news flashes (like "U.S.A. attacks Iran") to net Internet crime victims.

We probably shouldn't be too quick to celebrate Soloway's conviction. He is obviously just one of many "Spam Kings" operating out there. Hopefully, as time goes on, we will see more of these so-called spam superstars put behind bars. After all, just about anything that is distasteful or illegal on the Internet normally starts with a spam e-mail.

On a final note, both Soloway and Davidson seemed to be servicing a lot of commercial clients. Maybe if the legal emphasis shifted towards the people paying spammers, there would be less incentive (money) for spammers to pollute the Internet!