From: Stephen Calkins [calkins@wayne.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 12:28 PM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Subject: Proposed Amendments to Investment Company Advertising Rules (S7-17-02) To the Commission: I submit this informal comment simply to ask you to rethink the requirement in your proposed amendments to the Investment Company Advertising Rules that monthly performance information be made available by toll-free telephone numbers. If you are going to require current-month data, you should permit internet availability as an alternative, for several reasons. First, the data on which you rely concerning internet access (50.5% of households had internet access as of September 2001) severely understates internet access, for three reasons: (1) Access rates are soaring – in 1998, only a quarter of households had access – so year-old data is already very dated. (2) Among likely investors of substantial sums, internet access is routine. (For instance, even as long ago as 2000, 79% of families earning over $75,000 enjoyed internet access.) (3) Libraries across America now make the internet available without charge. Anyone serious about investing can easily access the internet today, let alone in the years ahead when your rule would be influencing behavior. Second, requiring telephone service would result in more expensive, lower quality information. Investors do not need higher costs. Yet performance data over the telephone is much less user friendly than information on the internet, where one can quickly see results for a variety of periods and for different funds. Why require Cadillac costs for Chevy quality? Third, investors need better information on the internet. Were you to permit an internet option, you would create an incentive (not just an admonition) to upgrade web sites. Such an opportunity should not be passed by. Thank you for your consideration. Professor Stephen Calkins Wayne State University Law School 471 West Palmer Street Detroit, MI 48202 (313) 577-3945 (313) 577-2620 (fax) calkins@wayne.edu