FTC crackdown on porn spam a good thing

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/news/stories/20050115/opinion/1873001.html

FTC crackdown on porn spam a good thing

E D I T O R I A L
Those who receive unsolicited X-rated e-mails might be seeing less in the future.

The Federal Trade Commission this week won a court order to shut down illegal advertising for six companies accused of profiting from thousands of X-rated e-mails that directed people to their online pornography sites in the government’s first legal case involving adult Internet spam.

A federal judge in Las Vegas on Jan. 5 granted the commission’s request for a restraining order against the companies, their executives and an affiliate for allegedly violating federal laws governing commercial electronic mail, commonly known as spam. The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction shutting down the network’s illegal e-mail ads.

We applaud this action and hope it’s not the last of its kind for the FTC.

It’s the first time the agency has taken legal action under a rule that requires a label in the subject line of sexually explicit e-mails. The law also holds others liable for operating Web sites that benefit from fraudulent pornographic spam.

Among the alleged violations, the e-mails did not include a sexually explicit warning in the subject line, falsely promised free membership to the Web sites and prevented recipients from stopping the unwanted e-mails.

The Internet is a vast repository of information. We don’t expect it to be all G-rated. That would be impossible to regulate, and we’re not sure such regulation wouldn’t infringe on individual freedom of expression.

What we’re fairly certain of, however, is many people don’t want the sexually oriented material sent to them. If they desire it, it can be found in large volume on the World Wide Web. There is no shortage of Web sites with varied sexual content.

But for the rest of us who seek news online or want to communicate with friends or business colleagues via e-mail, this is welcome news. Fewer X-rated e-mails will be refreshing.

Originally published Saturday, January 15, 2005