When MediaPost’s Online Media Daily covered the news that four national advertising organizations and two online civil liberties groups had filed amicus briefs in favor of pornography group the Free Speech Coalition’s lawsuit against Utah over its so-called child-protection do-not-e-mail registries, reporter Wendy Davis dutifully included comment from the registries’ leading proponent Matthew Prince, who also runs them and makes money from them:
“Matthew Prince, CEO of Unspam, said he was ‘surprised’ by the attempt of groups representing mainstream marketers to get involved in the case. ‘I’m surprised that organizations like the Association of National Advertisers—whose boards are made up of companies like Wal-Mart and LeapFrog, and who have been at the forefront of protecting the rights of individuals and parents to choose what material comes into their homes—would support a lawsuit by the pornography industry, arguing that they have the right to send whatever and whenever they want, and to whomever they want.’”
No one in this case is arguing that they should be able to send anything they want to anyone. They’re arguing that the registries place an unfair cost on legitimate, law-abiding marketers while doing nothing to protect our kids, and possibly even exposing children’s e-mail addresses to pedophiles.
One suspects that Prince did not pick Wal-Mart’s name out of thin air. More likely, he knows Wal-Mart and LeapFrog have clipping services monitoring their press mentions, and that they will be made aware that their names were mentioned in connection with a pornography group’s lawsuit.
So far, Prince has refused to defend his industry-leeching scheme on its merits. Rather, he has resorted to the smear tactics illustrated above.
If he ever wants a forum to argue registries’ merits to e-mail marketers, he has an open one here.
We are not holding our breath.
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