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Michigan Enforces Do-Not-Email Registry Law
elanghe writes "The Michigan Attorney General filed suit against two companies sending adult-oriented email messages to the state's children, in violation of the Michigan Children's Protection Registry. A similar law in Utah is being challenged by the porn industry. While the FTC, influenced by the Direct Marketing Association, rejected the idea of a do-not-email registry, have these two states proven anti-spam laws like these — unlike CAN-SPAM — really have teeth?"
Take some porn and go to your downtown local metropolis. Now hand out those pornographic pictures to everyone, young and old alike. See how long you can do that until you're arrested. Nobody challenges those laws, why the hell would anybody be able to challenge laws against people who randomly distribute lewd messages online?
Let me tell you that I grew up in the area what is now Belarus. We would hear so often about American freedom of expression, and how great it was. But then those of us of the former Soviet Union got to see what America was really about, after the collapse. And what we saw was nothing like the claims that were so oft made!
Americans in general do not understand what freedom of expression is truly about, and that is why such laws go unchallenged. Being a person who grew up without freedom, I know that it is a black-or-white situation. You have freedom, or you do not. Any legislation that limits your freedom of expression in any way immediately strips you of the ability to freely express yourself. The content and the media are irrelevant. If there is an expression you will be punished for making, then you have no freedom of expression. Your First Amendment is bupkis!
The same idea, it goes for spam. As annoying as you may find it, spam is a method of expression. And if you are an American who believes in freedom of expression (as is necessary to be considered a real American), then you will just accept that you will get spam. I know, you will give your "Freedom of expression is not the right to be heard!" saying. And correct you would be. In this case, the "hearing" part involves you reading their message. You do not have to do so, of course! But if you truly support the American ideal of free expression, you should believe that there should be no legal restriction on the ability of spammers to express themselves in whatever way they choose.