[Infowarrior] - AOL charged with blocking opponents' e-mail

Thu Apr 13 22:07:04 EDT 2006

AOL charged with blocking opponents' e-mail

By Stefanie Olsen
http://news.com.com/AOL+charged+with+blocking+opponents+e-mail/2100-1030_3-6
061089.html

Story last modified Thu Apr 13 17:44:12 PDT 2006

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America Online on Wednesday apparently began blocking e-mail on its servers
containing the Web address of a petition against the company's upcoming
certified-mail program, an issue the company called a "glitch."

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 late Wednesday and continuing through Thursday.

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."

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said late Thursday that AOL e-mails mentioning
Dearaol.com would now be delivered as normal. The issue, he said, arose late
Wednesday because of a software glitch that "affected dozens of Web links in
messages," including the Dearaol.com.

"We discovered the issue early this morning, and our postmaster and mail
operations team started working to identify this software glitch," he said.

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.

The e-mail tax, which could amount to a penny per e-mail sent, would
essentially line AOL's pockets for ensuring delivery for affluent mass
mailers, while leaving others with unreliable service in ineffective
spam-filtering systems, according to the site. Nearly 600 organizations and
350,000 individuals have signed the petition so far.

Despite its quick fix, the hiccup adds fuel to a long-running controversy
around GoodMail's certified-mail program and various ISPs adoption of it.
Earlier this year, AOL and Yahoo said they would implement the e-mail
postage program because with the rise of phishing scams and spam, they
needed a way to tell legitimate marketing messages, like those advertising a
sale at Jcrew.com, from junk. But their endorsement of GoodMail's system
immediately spurred outcry from groups like MoveOn.org, the AFL-CIO, Gun
Owners of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which formed the
coalition Dearaol.com.

In March, AOL extended a peace offering by announcing a plan to pick up the
costs for nonprofit groups that wish to send e-mails to AOL members.

AOL was expected to adopt the GoodMail system last week, but that move was
delayed for unknown reasons, according to MoveOn co-founder Wes Boyd, whose
group and the Electronic Frontier Foundation started the petition.

"AOL is essentially scanning e-mail for anything that's opposing their
policy," Boyd said in a phone interview.

The group says it also believes the alleged blocking cements the view that
an e-mail tax will harm free speech on the Internet.

"The fact is, ISPs like AOL commonly make these kinds of arbitrary
decisions--silently banning huge swathes of legitimate mail on the flimsiest
of reasons--every day, and no one hears about it," said Danny O'Brien of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. "AOL's planned CertifiedEmail system would
let them profit from this power by offering to charge legitimate mailers to
bypass these malfunctioning filters."

Graham said that AOL has yet to implement the GoodMail system, but plans to
do so imminently. When it does adopt the certified mail program, AOL will
continue to operate its white lists, or lists of accepted e-mail senders, he
said. In addition, the company plans to start a registration system for
nonprofits and other groups wishing to send e-mail to subscribers so that
they would avoid spam filters.