AOL Charged With Blocking Opponents' e-Mail

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via C|Net News.

[snip]

America Online on Thursday apparently began blocking subscribers from sending or receiving e-mail containing the Web 
address of a petition against the company's upcoming certified-mail program.

The Internet service provider, which has roughly 20 million subscribers in the United States, began bouncing e-mail 
communications with the URL "Dearaol.com" sometime early Thursday, according to nonprofit MoveOn.org.

A e-mail sent by CNET News.com to an AOL.com address and containing the URL "www.dearaol.com" bounced back on Thursday 
afternoon with a system administrator note that read: "The e-mail system was unable to deliver the message, but did not 
report a specific reason."

Dearaol.com is a coalition of companies and individuals against AOL's adoption of GoodMail's CertifiedEmail, an 
antispam program that requires marketers to pay to ensure delivery of their e-mail messages and circumvent spam 
filters. The Web site contains an open letter and a petition that calls on people to protest what it calls an "e-mail 
tax" that would inhibit the Internet's inherent free flow of information and create a two-tiered system.

[snip]

More:
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6061089.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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