Protector or Profiteer?

UNSPAM IS BEHIND THE TWO LAWS ENACTED LAST summer in Michigan and Utah that allow parents to register children's e-mail addresses and other “contact points” as off limits to messages with content or links to content that's illegal for them to view or buy. Unspam runs the registries.

E-mailers that want to include such material, such as a beer-brewing e-mail newsletter, are supposed to scrub their lists against these registries for $5 and $7 per thousand addresses checked in Utah and Michigan, respectively.

Iowa, Georgia, Connecticut, Hawaii and Wisconsin are considering similar legislation. Unspam is behind them, too.

Let's see: Unspam lobbies for the laws, helps write them, wins the contracts and then profits from them.

Is there a pony somewhere in that dung pile?