THE FIRST CHARGES BROUGHT under Michigan's so-called child-protection do-not-e-mail law show that the state is casting a far wider net than Utah.
Far from being pornographers, one of the companies sued by Michigan is a gambling advertiser and the other is a wine club marketer. Moreover, neither firm was warned about the law before they were charged, according to court papers.
An investigation was prompted when Kelly Cool of Oakland County, MI reported in January that she had received a single e-mail from “4 Seasons Wine” to an account that was registered with the state's Child Protection Registry, court documents state.
State Attorney General Mike Cox's office used the IP address in the header of the wine club e-mail to trace it to the Data Stream Group, the proprietor of which is Eric Reinertsen.
Reinertsen is listed on anti-spam group Spamhaus.org's register of known spam operations (or Rokso) list. He was not reachable for comment.
But whether or not the Data Stream Group is a spammer, this case confirms some of the worst fears held by marketers: That though these registries are touted as a tool to protect children from pornography, law enforcement will use them against sellers of relatively harmless products.
Unlike Utah, which sought to allay mainstream marketers' fears when it charged a pornographer in its first case, Michigan has sent a signal that it's prepared to go after any and all violators.
The other defendant is RR Media Inc. of Cathedral City, CA. In that case, Gary Robert Shields of Wayne County prompted an investigation when he reported receiving an e-mail from “Casino Classic” to an account listed on the state registry, the complaint alleges. The e-mail offered an hour of free gambling.
According to Cox's office, Web site registry information noted Kevin Bever as the contact person for the gambling operation. Michigan officials left a voice message for Bever, and it was returned by attorney Jim Snell of the law firm Bingham McClutchen. He said he would be representing Bever, court papers say.
Snell was not reachable for comment.
Michigan and Utah passed almost identical laws last year allowing parents and guardians to register children's e-mail addresses and other “contact points” as off limits to anything it is illegal for minors to view or buy. Marketers who want to include such material in e-mail are supposed to scrub their files against registries in the two states. Michigan's costs $5 per thousand addresses, and Utah's $7.
Unspam, the company that runs the registries, has been lobbying to have similar laws enacted in as many other states as possible, claiming they're a solution to protecting children from online pornography.
In January, Utah's Division of Consumer Protection issued a $2,500 citation to Canadian pornographer HoneyI[blanked]The BabySitter.com. The state has yet to collect the fine.
