******** Also see: Parents Remain Unclear on Online Privacy Law http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/cyber/articles/12coppa.html If a relatively affluent company -- a $20 million Thomas movie is opening in U.S. theaters in July -- says it doesn't have the manpower or money to comply with COPPA, how can startups and smaller firms hope to do so? --Declan ******** http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36325,00.html COPPA Lets Steam out of Thomas by Declan McCullagh ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 3:00 a.m. May. 13, 2000 PDT A wildly popular children's television show has disappointed millions of young fans by halting their regular email bulletins. A U.S. law makes it illegal for the Thomas the Tank Engine show to continue sending email, the "Fat Controller" character sadly informed his readers recently. "I am sorry to say, dear friends, that I have had to suspend all mailing list operations as a result of a new on-line privacy act," Thomas's website says. Call it the law of unintended consequences: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which Congress said would help children, in some cases has had precisely the opposite effect. The law took effect last month. In response to the new law, online matchmaker Ecrush.com decided to say goodbye to some 2,000 under-12 subscribers, and NBCi angered its pre-teen clientele in February when it canceled their email accounts because of COPPA. The law requires firms to obtain parental consent for all the kids who use their site, which U.K. firm Britt Allcroft, owner of the Thomas show, said would cost too much. "We haven't got the manpower or the finances," said Anthony Evans, head of marketing for Britt Allcroft. Evans said 40 percent of the site's 500,000 monthly visitors are from the U.S., where the show appears on the Fox Family channel. Judging from the disappointed emails he's received from kids and parents, he said, most of them are pretty upset. "He's important to children worldwide. There's nothing really harsh about his world," Evans said of the show's flagship character. "Congress rushed into this without considering the impact of indulging in privacy technophobia on consumers and small businesses," says Solveig Singleton, a lawyer specializing in privacy issues at the free-market Cato Institute. "This will happen more and more as the Federal Trade Commission gets on the privacy bandwagon and decides to treat legitimate businesses as stalkers." A major motion picture, called Thomas and the Magic Railroad and based on the TV show, will be out in U.S. theaters on July 26. Starring Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda, the film mixes live action and model animation and features the story of a girl who takes the wrong train and travels to a toy world where she meets Thomas the steam engine. Supporters of COPPA say most children's websites should be able to comply with the law. [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
