Unbelievable: Utah Expects Foreign Firms to Use Registry
Utah officials expect foreign companies to pay to scrub their lists against its cockamamie do-not-e-mail registry. Or at least that’s the conclusion we drew after an e-mail exchange with a spokeswoman.
The state late last month announced it had cited and fined four companies for allegedly sending e-mail to kids’ addresses on the registry touting gambling, alcohol and pornography.
Utah requires marketers who want to include any content relating to products or services it is illegal for minors to view or buy to scrub their e-mail lists against the state’s no-e-mail registry once a month.
Among the companies cited last month for violating the registry were a Singapore-based pornographer and a UK-based beer Web site.
When asked if Utah expected every marketer in the world to use the registry, Jennifer Bolton, the public information officer for the Utah Department of Commerce responded with the following e-mail statement.
“The law requires anyone who sends e-mail messages containing the material prohibited by the law to scrub their lists against the Registry monthly,” she wrote. “The issue is not whether they are foreign companies, but whether they send e-mail messages to Utah children.”
So since there is no way to know whether an address is accessed in Utah or not, the only reasonable conclusion to draw is that Utah does, indeed, expect foreign entities to scrub their lists against the child protection registry.
When we sent Bolton an e-mail asking her if our conclusion was correct, she didn’t answer. We have yet to hear from her.
Is it something we said? Jennifer? Jennifer? Helloooo Jennifer. Damn. For some reason, this publication has a hell of a time keeping sources in Utah.
