Everytime a web application, service or site requires an e-mail address, I think to myself, "why"? While some businesses have legitimate reasons for asking, the spammers of the world (wide web) always have me thinking twice before signing up.
Paranoia is the enemy of web-based businesses. Most people I know have throwaway/temporary e-mail addresses and there are even services that specialize in them. So when companies attempt to reach users and customers, their electronic voices often fall upon deaf ears.
That's why companies must provide incentives for giving out e-mail addresses and not just making it a required field.
People have an incentive to share their email with social networking companies like Facebook who search address books for friends who also use their services. We also have a good reason to give it to professional networks like LinkedIn for the same reason, except we replace "friends" with "colleagues".
Others, like 2pad, build businesses around it. They has a service that converts email and photos from your inbox into a private gallery. In order to use them, you have to give a valid e-mail address. And since that e-mail address will be likely be one of your most frequently checked, 2pad doesn't have to worry about their messages ending up in an e-mail graveyard.
(I do wonder though: if I signed up with one of my more spammy accounts, what kind of photo album would be created?)
As a web-based business, your only guarantee in reaching users is through your application (which may be rarely accessed) or through the contact info (which is likely to be an e-mail address, though there are other ways in which users can sign up). If you want us to to give you the real deal instead of fake@FakeEmail.com, provide us a real reason to.
I'm a 20-something year old American seeing more of the world by teaching English in Japan. I dig 
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