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Utah Anti-Kids-Spam Registry "a Flop"
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun May 06, 2007 01:47 PM
from the show-me-the-money dept.
from the show-me-the-money dept.
Eric Goldman writes "A couple of years ago Utah enacted a 'Child Protection Registry.' The idea was to allow parents to register kids' email addresses and then to require certain email senders to filter their lists against that database before sending their emails. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah registry has been a 'financial flop.' Initially projected to generate $3-6 million in revenues for Utah, it has instead produced total revenues of less than $200,000. 80% of this has gone to Unspam, the for-profit registry operator; Utah's share of the registry's revenues has been a paltry $37,445. Worse, Utah has spent $100,000 (so far) to defend the private company from legal challenges by free-speech, advertising, and porn interests."
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Let me get this straight (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't think I've ever read anything good come out of any proposal made by a politician about the Internet. Senators, Representatives.... Please, go home (walking in the snow, uphill both ways, of course) back t
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Regardless, it feels almost like the Internet was an accident in that way. A great accident, IMHO, but an accident nonetheless. And I can't help but feel the vast majority of lawmakers have no clue as to the Internet or how it works. To be fair, I'll admit my knowledge of the
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There were actually a few purposes, one of which is mentioned here [wikipedia.org] (note the Background of Arpanet section). Basically, apart from communications, it was also meant to make new software readily available. One other purpose not really mentioned in the Wikipedia article is that one would not need to always upgrade a multi-million dollar (in those days) computer just to run computations faster. On
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The analogy was simply a statement to say that politicians in office today are too old-fashioned (read: out of date) to possibly understand modern technology. Similarly, a combustion engine is probably a bit beyond a random farmer from the Middle Ages. Technological advancements seem to go hand in hand with educational advancements.
And I object to being called a fat American fucktard. I'm a rather skinny and pasty American fucktard, thank you very much, and I am par
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The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, vineyards, cuisine, literature...
What the fuck is wrong with you people and the mockery of France? Has the country made some stupid decisions? Yes. As have all countries. (America's made plenty. More than I care to list.) But France has massive amounts of culture. In Paris alone... it's staggering. To say the French have no culture is like saying that Rome has no history. You only make yourself out to be an ignorant dumbass.
Re:Let me get this straight (Score:4, Insightful)
In this case, because there is a free speech issue with the regulation, both the state and sub-contractor are getting sued instead instead collecting fees. So the regulation is costing money instead of making it.
My advice for the people of Utah is that if they believe the regulation is a good one, why should it matter if it turns a profit? If protecting kids is their goal, they should fight this to the bitter end.
Parent
Two issues with that. (Score:2)
#2. How much money do we want to spend on "protecting the children"? Is a trillion dollars a month too much to spend to prevent one kid from seeing one naked picture?
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Before the people of Utah waste tax payer dollars on a regulation they believe to be a "good one" perhaps there should be some clarification as to whether it is effective and whether it is constitutional. There is a group of people in Utah who see a way to scam tax payers out of their hard earned dollars b
Re:Let me get this straight (Score:5, Informative)
Is this why Brent Hatch, who lobbied to have this idiotic bill passed, was hired for 3 to 4 times what state attorneys are paid to now defend this idiotic legistation?
Looks more and more like a scam where local cons are skimming tax dollars.
Parent
Re:Let me get this straight (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA. They didn't even include the financial estmates on how much the lawsuits would cost:P Its not even just THIS pile of joy. Look at the other "trademark" bill. Why the hell would a company want to pay $250 to trademark itself in Utah for just the internet? Why the hell trademark your stuff in just Utah when the FEDERAL copyright office gives you the same rights? I don't remember where, but didn't the supreme court affirm trademarks work on the internet? Does Utah think they have a "Utah Internet"?
I always thought Utah was a bit religious, but freaking naive?
Parent
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Have you ever been to Utah? I think it has something to do with a critical number of residents wearing magical underwear. Some boundary condition is met and insanity ensues.
I can't wait until some hacker gets his hands on this "children's registry". You haven't seen a marketing feeding frenzy until you've seen advertisers who think they've got a direct pipeline to the eyes and ears of "tweeners".
I remember how transfixed I used to get as a kid
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Fixed that for you.
CAN-SPAM? (Score:2)
Re:CAN-SPAM? Apparently no preemption (Score:3, Informative)
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The fine article you cite is from May (this month).
So this law has cleared the legal hurdles mentioned in the summary. It could, in theory, make money now that Judge Kimball has made this law legal!
Addendum (Score:2)
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There have to be better ways to do this. In fact, I don't remember getting adult spam in a long time, with exception to spam promoting ED pills.
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Heavily involved. Hatch lobbied for the current law that is now costing tax payers and, lo and behold, Hatch was hired to defend the law at 3 to 4 times what state attorneys are paid.
Ralph Yarro is also CEO of Think Atomic, the company that will be making money off the laws that he claims are needed to enable CP80. These people are using the religious right's unfounded fear of pornography
Just as well (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine: a database of genuine e-mail addresses belonging to minors. If there wasn't adequate enforcement, we'd get a large-scale equivalent of those "unsubscribe" links that don't.
Of course, enforcing a do-not-spam list for minors would cost something even if there weren't lawsuits against the existence of the list...
Utahed Wrong! (Score:5, Funny)
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More stupidity (Score:3, Insightful)
They need to spend money on educating users, and supporting people that will help users protect themselves from the threats that will continue to happen. Just as MS or antivirus software vendors: as soon as they plug one hole another appears. Spam is even worse. They were never able to stop people from sending junk mail to your mail box, they can't stop people from stealing ID information, and they will never be able to control the bits on the Internet to stop emails from getting to your inbox with laws.
Parents need to protect their own children, and admittedly, they could use some sound solid advice. Why don't government groups spend time with that problem?
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Do you mean that people inside Utah can recieve spam that originated from outside Utah, perhaps outside the USA??? This internet is a confusing and dangerous thing....
"Parents need to protect their own children, and admittedly, they could use some sound solid advice. Why don't government groups spend time with that problem?"
And just who, in our wonderfully technology savvy government, would you have giving thi
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This is not true, unforutnately. However, they need to realize that one cannot regularte the source of information on the internet, only the end users in your jurisdiction. Want to tax your citizens who are people buying used cars over the internet? Ok add a tax as they bring the car in for registration. Want to tax the sender of an MP3 of a local band in Batswana? Not going to happen.
This particular piece of legislation was doomed to f
Welcome to (Score:3, Interesting)
How is aggregating tons of email addresses (Score:4, Insightful)
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Willful ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)
So Utah legislators decided that they -- and they alone -- would be the ones to implement the very first successful opt-out list.
It takes willful ignorance to believe that you will succeed where thousands before you have failed. Utah legislators must have deliberately ignored all advice given to them by the technical experts.
This is not ordinary hubris. This is a special kind of hubris that's infused with a stubborn, childish refusal to educate oneself.
What About Me? (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, now. I have "porn interests" and I haven't seen a dime. What gives?
It just needs more.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Give this project more money THEN it will work. Go government go! Your the solution to every problem! Whoo!
(Alright so I'm kinda jaded today with our suck ass government and there suck ass programs.)
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Government funded "privatization" of social programs is not LESS GOVERNMENT. Less government would be no funding of any kind and no program.. its an individual choice if they want a filter or not and there are many out there, if people want one, they can go get on.. that is in the spirit of Liberty, not forcing people to pay for a crappy government system.
I'm English, so forgive the stupid question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Connect the dots (Score:2)
Nobody markets that any more (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think much spam is aimed at kids any more. Most of the spam I get (after ordinary spam filtering) is either for 1) Viagra, or 2) penny stocks. Neither subject is likely to interest kids much.
Looking at the last ten spams in the trash:
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I'm not even seeing porn spam much any more. It's the same old stock pump and dump scams and that "discount pharmacy" guy, day in and day out, all with random headings. That may be because the upstream spam filters are dropping anything with a link to a known annoyance site, though.
forgetaboutit (Score:2, Insightful)
Valentine had more trouble remembering last summer's conversation about hiring Hatch. "I have no idea," he said. "I don't remember anything about this." House Speaker Greg Curtis also had difficulty recalling the meeting.
It seems like there are a lot of forgetful minds in the U.S. government. Maybe there needs to be some kind of memorization test before anyone is allowed to work for or with the government. I don't know or recall if they already have one or not. I'm not sure. I don't remember.
Profit! (Score:2)
2. Sell that list.
3. Prof...
What? Oh, can't be used by spammers from the US? Ok. As we all know, it's impossible to get spam from abroad, so it's safe. Damn.
Whew, what a relief... (Score:2)
And in other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'm afraid of the meta-analogy police but.. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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Cool! I could use one of those. Mine has the old manual kind, and it is kinda dangerous to use while I'm driving while trying to keep the cell phone balanced on my shoulder and reading the paper and shaving.
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