Your company logo on postage?

Back in 1999 when I wrote about a dot-com trying to get permission from the U.S. Postal Service to sell electronic postage over the Internet, I distinctly remember thinking: “Now that would be a license to print money.”

Turns out that a law dating back to the 1800s saw things much the same way. Before that statute was amended earlier this year, it expressly prohibited the printing of commercial images on “currency,” and postage was considered currency for purposes of this discussion.

Today’s market leader in selling postage over the Internet — Stamps.com — is elated to have that law wiped off the books. This week’s ‘Net Buzz column gets into the reasons.

You may recall Stamps.com as the victim of a prank by the editors of The Smoking Gun that involved the images of a mass murderer, a war criminal who recently died and two executed spies. The company would rather everyone forget the whole episode.