Now, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, Livingston and a small army of plaintiffs, attorneys and self-appointed activists have more license to go after businesses that send them junk faxes. In refusing during the week of January 12 to hear a case that claimed the 1991 federal ban on unsolicited faxes violates free-speech rights, the high court let stand a lower-court ruling involving a lawsuit filed by the state of Missouri against Fax.com. The suit accused Fax.com, once the largest fax blaster in the U.S., of illegally sending unsolicited ads to fax machines in the state.

But by declining to hear the lower court's case and allowing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 to stay intact, the court has effectively sanctioned an unintended consequence of the law that has ensnared many businesses in a legal web of fines, threats and a lot of aggravation.

Seattle's own Spam King, who used stolen e-mail addresses and "zombie" computers to send a deluge of spam, saw his reign come to an end Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Robert Soloway pleaded guilty to three counts: fraud, e-mail fraud and failure to file an income tax return. He had faced 40 charges. He will be sentenced June 20. The maximum sentence on the fraud charge is 20 years, five years for e-mail fraud and one year for not filing an income tax return.