Spam Marshals?

The fearless Federal Trade Commission is ready to respond to all the various longings for the feds to police spam. Not surprisingly, the tools the FTC says it needs include secret demands for subscriber info from Net service providers and access to the FBI's criminal databanks.

Evidently anticipating it will run into many foreign-based spammers beyond the reach of U.S. law, the FTC wants to be able to work closely—and, yes, secretly—with overseas police agencies. Conversely, be sure to close your Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts before the Turkish secret service hauls you away after some Kurd or Greek spoofs your address.

Ah, order.