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."

Comments

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.

Willful ignorance

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been known for years that e-mail opt-out lists are completely unworkable for controlling spam. None -- absolutely zero -- attempts have ever been successful.

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.