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Does anyone remember a cantankerous man named Arnold Fishman?

He slammed the Direct Marketing Association years ago for compiling — and publicizing — pumped-up statistics on mail order sales.

The problem? That state tax officers read these reports and used them to justify another use-tax assault on the catalog business.

Let's assume there was a shred of truth in what he said; we still think the DMA should be forgiven. It was only trying to document direct marketing's economic vitality.

But we're now facing another situation in which our zeal could get us in trouble.

The magic word this time is integration — you know, the idea that all targeted media are part of the same stew.

That sounds good until some state legislature introduces a do-not-mail bill.

Then we promptly remind them that direct mail is different from e-mail, and that there's no need to regulate it.

State politicos have accepted this logic thus far. But some day, one of them is going to ask: “Well, boys, which is it? Are they different or the same?”

And if we can't answer, mailers could end up suppressing prospecting names from an entire state. It almost happened in California a few years ago, according to Pete Carney of Carney Direct.

The scary thing is that when it comes to direct mail lists, the states can pass whatever bill they want to. With e-mail their fancies are constrained by the federal Can Spam Act.

Maybe we should cool the integration talk for awhile.