No-spam likely to be as popular as no-call

Thanks to Attorney General Jay Nixon, Missouri is looking to be on the cutting edge of putting an end to Internet spam.

Those are the annoying, unsolicited e-mails that pitch bogus medical cures, provide links to pornography or ask computer users to sign up for a new credit card.

Nixon is following up his popular no-call list, which has allowed Missourians to keep their phone numbers off lists used by telemarketers, with the so-called no-spam list.

The no-spam list works much the same way as the no-call list. It will allow individuals and companies to sign up to block unwanted commercial e-mail.

If Nixon's no-spam plan is implemented, Missouri would be the first state to have such a program.

Here's how it would work: After e-mail users signed up for the program, businesses that market over the Internet would be legally required to pay for the names and then would be fined if they continued to send spam to them.

It's a fine idea. Spam e-mails are a waste time-consuming and sometimes annoying. Thanks to the enforcement powers of the attorney general, these lists have some teeth.