'6,000 hours of irrelevant training': Man's business shut down for absurd reason

(Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay)

A renowned spam fighter, whose work has included developing specific strategies for consumers to sting those who deliver spam with penalties provided under the law, is being forced into a fight with regulators.

They want him to take 6,000 hours of training to run his computer.

It is the Institute for Justice that is working now on behalf of Jay Fink.

He's a pioneer in fighting email spam, and is working with IJ on a federal lawsuit over California's "overreaching and unconstitutional private investigator licensing requirements."

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The IJ explained, "Jay’s business was recently shut down by California regulators who argued he must endure 6,000 hours of irrelevant training and obtain a private-investigator license in order to legally help customers identify and index the junk email they receive."

Andrew Ward, a lawyer for IJ, outlined the problem created by the state: "Instead of being celebrated as an innovator, Jay is being punished by regulators who are ignoring the Constitution. We’re not talking about armed private security. Jay reads and writes at his desk. That’s exactly what the First Amendment protects—collecting and sharing information."

(Pixabay)

Fink started his career more than a decade ago after getting frustrated with unwanted spam. He knew California prohibits sending certain kinds of spam, but to fight it, consumers have to do a lot of work to identify, index and prepare the messages they want to challenge.

He developed then a strategy for his company to read clients’ junk mail, flag messages that might violate California law, and compile them into lists.

As a result already, hundreds of consumers have recovered damages from spammers who fail to follow the law.

But then government.

The IJ said an analyst from California’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services claimed he actually was an "unlicensed private investigator."

The state's verdict: Take 6,000 hours apprenticing in law enforcement or something.

"None of this experience has anything to do with identifying spam. And only then, after paying a fee and passing an exam, could he get back into business," the IJ said.

Dylan Moore, a litigation counsel for IJ, said, "It doesn’t take 6,000 hours of training to learn how to identify spam messages and put them into a PDF. Anyone who has an internet connection and email address probably already knows how to do this, and the state isn’t cracking down on them. Jay just takes the hassle and frustration out of the process. Just like reporters or authors who compile information for a living, Jay is protected by the First Amendment."

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