Editorial: Time to regulate all the junk e-mail

Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.

It would be nice if some naturally occurring law of economics, as strong as the law of supply and demand, applied to telemarketing and junk e-mail. Something, perhaps, called the "law of no buy and they'll disband." Unfortunately, however, even if you never buy anything from a telemarketer or junk e-mailer, they just keep calling and sending.

Because there is no natural law protecting consumers from such unsolicited commercial bombardment, the only defense is through government regulation. Telemarketers are becoming more and more regulated. Now it's time to clamp some regulations onto the bulk e-mailers. They are demonstrating that, as an industry, they are totally incapable of any restraint and wholly capable of deception. People and businesses are receiving hundreds and sometimes thousands of unsolicited e-mails a week, despite filtering software they may have loaded. Many of the e-mails come in with misleading tags in order to trick the recipient into opening them.

Consumer groups have a petition before the Federal Trade Commission seeking regulations to govern this type of e-mail, which is known as spam. California, on its own, offered its citizens relief by requiring the senders of spam to include the letters ADV -- standing for advertisement -- on the tag lines. And the state of Washington has outlawed misleading tag lines. E-mail is a wonderful form of communication, but unless spam becomes regulated its usefulness will be severely diminished. Who has time to sort through 500 or 1,000 e-mails while trying to find the few that are needed? The 2003 Nevada Legislature should add spam regulations to its to-do list.