Those zany do-not-e-mail registry people are apparently everywhere. It seems that while marketers have been fighting registries in the U.S., the no-e-mail wackos have been working on lawmakers in Bulgaria.
The following blurb appeared last week on Bugaria’s Sofia News Agency Web site:do –not-e-mail
“Bulgaria's Commission for trade and consumers protection will set up a register of the e mails, whose owners are not willing to receive unwanted e mail massages—spam.
“This is stated in the bill for e-trade approved by Bulgaria’s government. If the Spam sender fails to obey the will of the user, he is to be fined. The fines will vary from BGN 200 to BGN 4,000.
“The register with e-mails, banning the receiving of unwanted mails, could be used by anyone. They will only have to send their e-mail address to the Commission for trade and consumers protection.
“Experts commented that the main problem would be with the spam that is not coming from Bulgaria.”
Another Bulgarian news report said that companies will have to scrub their lists against the registry before sending e-mail. Sound familiar?
Here’s an idea: Maybe the company that lobbied for and runs the so-called child-protection do-not-e-mail registries in Michigan and Utah, Unspam, could win the contract for Bulgaria’s registry and move there.
After all, Europe’s penchant for economic self mutilation would certainly be friendly to Unspam’s business model of astronomically overcharging for a government-imposed burden that leeches off legitimate businesses while putting the people it claims to protect at higher risk.
What do you say, Bulgaria? Any room in your registry plans for an industry-crippling American business parasite? We know a bunch of people who would gladly chip in for one-way plane tickets to your fine country.
And if you’re looking for some legislators to help you craft your law so that it is as mind-numbingly ignorant and as devastating outside your borders as possible while doing nothing to accomplish its stated purpose, have we got some folks in Utah for you. They’re absolute whip-smarties when it comes to this stuff.
And we’re sure our friends will pay for their place tickets, too.
