A month ago, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz argued in a letter to SEC Chairman Chris Cox that corporations should be able to meet their SEC-imposed disclosure requirements by posting information on company-run websites. Interested parties would know to check, or maintain RSS feeds, and the problem of selective dissemination of information that is addressed by Reg FD would be solved.

Last Friday, Cox sent his response. Fittingly, he posted it as a comment on Schwartz's blog. Not so fittingly, but typical of government work, he dodged the issue, and procrastinated. Money quote:

The Commission encourages the use of websites as a source of information to the market and investors, and we welcome your offer to further discuss with us your views in this area. Assuming that the Commission were to embrace your suggestion that the "widespread dissemination" requirement of Regulation FD can be satisfied through web disclosure, among the questions that would need to be addressed is whether there exist effective means to guarantee that a corporation uses its website in ways that assure broad non-exclusionary access, and the extent to which a determination that particular methods are effective in that regard depends on the particular facts.

Tell me, in exactly what way does posting something on a previously-established and publicly-open website not meet the requirements of Reg FD, whereas faxing a press release to a necessarily-selective group of interested reporters does? Drafting the conditions necessary to prevent sharp-shooting should be the work of an afternoon.

For decades, the SEC has had a much better press than it deserves; this looks like it is still concerned with ensuring that the playing field between Wall Street pros and investors doesn't get too level. I once asked an ex-NYC securities lawyer where the SEC had been during a period of particularly egregious frauds -- he answered "They were too busy making my life a living hell over every misplaced comma in a prospectus."

And don't even get me started on FASB and accounting rules.