Anti-porn spam laws could slow e-commerce

• Laws in two states to shield children from objectionable e-mail are having a chilling effect on nearly everyone but the spammers they were intended for.
• "Most spammers will ignore the state laws, as they have all others," says attorney Parry Aftab.
• The laws in Michigan and Utah create e-mail registries to prevent children from viewing adult-oriented messages.
• But the laws, both barely a month old, threaten to disrupt businesses nationwide, marketers and legal experts say.
• Legitimate e-mail marketers are weighing the legal and financial risks of doing business in the two states.
• "Everyone is being impacted but the spammers," says Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil-liberties group.
• "Most spammers will ignore the state laws, as they have all others," says Parry Aftab, an attorney who specializes in Internet privacy and security.
• Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, who has fielded calls from state lawmakers.
• "Legislators are trying to tell marketers they can't advertise sex, alcohol and tobacco to youngsters online just as they can't on TV or in print," says Anne Mitchell, CEO of the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy, a group that works with public and private sectors.
• Businesses face steep fines if they fail to remove from their lists any e-mail addresses that parents submit.
• That's bad news to legitimate e-mail marketers, who dread the costs and onerous task of scrubbing their lists.
• "The costs are so prohibitive, we've recommended clients consider dropping" e-mail marketing campaigns in Utah and Michigan, says Derek Harding, CEO of Innovyx, which runs e-mail marketing campaigns for Sony and Toyota.
• Bishop concedes the law won't stop spam, but it will put a damper on unwanted e-mail aimed at kids and give the state the authority to punish violators.