A former America Online employee was sentenced to 15 months in prison yesterday for stealing 92 million e-mail screen names from the internet company and selling them to a "spammer".

Jason Smathers, 25, pleaded guilty in February in federal court in Manhattan to charges including conspiracy and interstate trafficking of stolen property.

He was paid $28,000 by an internet marketer for the names, which were taken from AOL's database of 30 million subscribers at the time.

Other defendants in spam cases have received tougher sentences. Last year, a New York state man known as the "Buffalo Spammer" was sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison for violating state forgery and identity-theft laws.

Smathers cooperated with prosecutors and appeared sorrowful in court yesterday surrounded by family members.

Prosecutors said AOL, a unit of Time Warner, suffered an estimated loss of $300,000 from employee time spent dealing with the issue, as well as hardare and software expenses.

In a letter to the judge, Smathers pleaded for leniency. He described himself as "an outlaw" in the "new frontier" of cyberspace. The judge did not impose a fine. He gave AOL 10 days to prove its financial loss before deciding on restitution, but suggested a figure of $84,000.