Utah Anti-Kids-Spam Registry "a Flop"

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."

Utahed Wrong!

[dotslashdot]

Just when Utahed they were doing it to protect the kids.

Re:I'm afraid of the meta-analogy police but..

[niceone]

The original idea was as stupid as forcing slashdot posters to check their analogies in a dictionary.

Eh? That makes no sense. Checking analogies in a dictionary would be like having a car with automatic toenail clippers.

Re:I'm afraid of the meta-analogy police but..

[iminplaya]

a car with automatic toenail clippers.

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.

What About Me?

[moehoward]

Hey, now. I have "porn interests" and I haven't seen a dime. What gives?

And in other news...

[British]

...a kids registry of "do not kill" requiring child killers to filter out their murder via consulting a list, failed to work.