I agree that the legal system is broken and shouldn't be viewed as a lottery to reward greed and stupidity. I also agree that the FTC ought to take deceptive advertising delivered via the Internet just as seriously as any other type of deceptive advertising.
However, I strongly doubt that the FTC will dedicate many resources to pursuing unethical businesses such as Bonzi that profit from the inexperience of the average internet user. Some serious changes will have to occur before the FTC acts more agressively.
Part of the explanation for the FTC's inaction is certainly political. The Internet has been regarded as a commercial frontier and lawmakers have been reluctant to regulate and tax internet commerce partially for fear of stifling new industry and partially for fear of the political backlash from soft-money contributors.
Other possible explanations for the FTC's failure to act against deceptive advertisers such as Bonzi include few precedents to justify such actions and, most simply, little funding to establish those precedents and enforce new regulations.
If the Internet is going to succeed over the longterm as a marketplace, consumers will need to feel that they are protected from fraud and deception. A few companies have made a lot of headway towards achieving that goal, even though most of them may not be making much profit yet. The most unfortunate result of inaction would be that all the money and work these companies have devoted to building viable business models for the Internet could be undermined by the bad apples out there.
It's a sad reality in this country that sometimes the only way to get action on important issues is to drag people and companies into court. Hopefully, the cases get discussed publicly and corporations, citizens and politicians realize the need to act to establish a better set of rules to avoid costly and avoidable litigation.
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I agree that the legal system is broken and shouldn't be viewed as a lottery to reward greed and stupidity. I also agree that the FTC ought to take deceptive advertising delivered via the Internet just as seriously as any other type of deceptive advertising.
However, I strongly doubt that the FTC will dedicate many resources to pursuing unethical businesses such as Bonzi that profit from the inexperience of the average internet user. Some serious changes will have to occur before the FTC acts more agressively.
Part of the explanation for the FTC's inaction is certainly political. The Internet has been regarded as a commercial frontier and lawmakers have been reluctant to regulate and tax internet commerce partially for fear of stifling new industry and partially for fear of the political backlash from soft-money contributors.
Other possible explanations for the FTC's failure to act against deceptive advertisers such as Bonzi include few precedents to justify such actions and, most simply, little funding to establish those precedents and enforce new regulations.
If the Internet is going to succeed over the longterm as a marketplace, consumers will need to feel that they are protected from fraud and deception. A few companies have made a lot of headway towards achieving that goal, even though most of them may not be making much profit yet. The most unfortunate result of inaction would be that all the money and work these companies have devoted to building viable business models for the Internet could be undermined by the bad apples out there.
It's a sad reality in this country that sometimes the only way to get action on important issues is to drag people and companies into court. Hopefully, the cases get discussed publicly and corporations, citizens and politicians realize the need to act to establish a better set of rules to avoid costly and avoidable litigation.