It’s time for the SEC to let companies communicate more freely with everyone, not just the chosen few. Today’s investors have easy access to all sorts of information — including SEC filings — and are unlikely to be suckered by just a few optimistic syllables, restrictions were ridiculous seven years ago and remain ridiculous today.

It’s worth noting that the pre-filing “quiet period” doesn’t actually exist, at least not officially. The phrase is nowhere the SEC’s reams of regulations. Instead, it’s legal shorthand for a series of securities laws drawn up in the 1930s, when information-starved investors kept getting fleeced by snake-oil salesmen.