An assortment of political and citizen action groups have begun a Sixties-style protest against AOL’s plan to charge for email.
February 28, 2006
If America Online was looking for public reaction to its trial balloon about charging for certain classes of email, then the portal firm has received its answer—a full-blown, Sixties-era consumer and citizen protest, Internet-style.
A disparate assemblage of about four dozen groups ranging from the National Humane Society to the Gun Owners of America have put aside their differences to focus on AOL and its plan to charge businesses for guaranteed delivery of bulk email (see AOL, Yahoo to Charge for Email).
The groups have set up a web site, www.dearaol.com, which will include an online petition demanding that AOL keep Internet email free for all. Among the groups behind the protest and petition are MoveOn.org Civic Action, the Democratic National Committee, the Association of Cancer Online Resources, and RightMarch.com.
Craigslist.com’s Craig Newmark is also listed as a supporter of the protest.
The petition asks AOL to refrain from auctioning off “preferential access” to giant corporate emailers while leaving their individual members to wonder “if their emails are being delivered at all.”
“The Internet is a force for democracy and economic innovation only because it is open to all Internet users equally—we must not let it become an unlevel playing field,” said the petition.
In a response, AOL did not mince words.
“There is nothing substantive about the events today,” said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesperson. “We will go ahead with the implementation in the next 30 days. Mark it on your calendars. These are organizations that exist to protest and perform political fundraising online, and they’ve selected the wrong target in AOL.”
Mr. Graham contended that AOL is not concerned about the presence of citizens’ groups among the petitioners.
“We know our members are supportive of the program, and that is the most important audience for us,” he said. “There are other companies doing what we are doing. It’s purely voluntary and there is no cost to the consumer.”
Shares of AOL’s parent company, Time Warner, rose $0.05 to $17.36 in recent trading.
Moving On
The protest is led by MoveOn.org, a political action group that claims to have more than 3.3 million members in the United States. MoveOn.org Civic Action, the branch of MoveOn.org leading the protest, has its roots in the high-tech industry. It was started by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Joan Blades and Wes Boyd.
Ms. Blades co-founded Berkeley Systems, a one-time leading player in the entertainment software business. Berkeley Systems is perhaps best known for its immensely popular Flying Toaster screen savers, and You Don't Know Jack, an online game show.
The protest makes no mention of Yahoo, which has also made moves to charge for certain classes of email. Both AOL and Yahoo partnered last year with Goodmail Systems, a Mountain View, California-based company. Goodmail markets CertifiedEmail, a service that carries a kind of seal of approval, assuring email recipients their messages come from a trusted sender.
Now...I understand these companies wanting to squash spam but...do they really think this is gonna stop them? If a company has enough money they can still spam someone AND be certified cause they payed for it. Personally, I think that's a bunch of BS... and AOL's responce to them? Talk about blown egoes.
I used to to be with AOL loooooong time ago. The very first email I got ...my first time ever on the net, was from AOL...complete with a virus. When confronted they tried to deny it and later I got to be friends with someone on the inside who did some tracking for me and found out it was from one of them. Then they started double charging me monthly along with a bunch of other stuff. Finally I told them to kiss my --- and bailed. But everytime afterwards i tried to send an email to a friend who was using AOL and it said anything about them...it got squashed. I found ways around them though.
So to say I am not a big fan of AOL is a major understatement...but this is a new time low for them. Oh...and thier so called anti-spyware...not. Yea it may get rid of SOME spyware but...did you know that it has it's own? How do I know this? Because I have fixed many computers...even brought a few back from the dead...and the culprit was...AOL's anti-spyware.
Anyway...enough of my ranting. I have got most everything done so tomorrow I will be posting a bit more here on things that have been going on personally. I do most all my posting of a personal nature here because yahoo has already given me enough trouble and I have this thing against squashing someone's freedom of speech, especially my own *grins*, though I rarely say much...but when I do, I like to be heard, as do we all.
I have recently opened up 4 more gateways (links to the right side) for you to explore and got 4 more to go...those are more on a personal level such as an online dream journal, my childhood, a metaphysics type (nlp's, evp's, ghosts and such) site and more. Stay tuned...always glad to those who read what I write.
Oh, you are quite welcome to post a comment...no need to be a member but it may not show up till tomorrow cause I scan them. If you disagree with what I post, thats fine...I will not keep you from voicing your opinion but if you start name calling and such them have the balls to send me a personal email instead of trying to look big and bad and posting it in public.
2 comments:
oooo...I just had a thought. I wonder how these companies feel about being addict to a dealer. I mean think about it...companies can get what they want...if they pay the right price. I also wonder how this would effect small businesses.
I have never trusted aol either. They only made it by dumbing the internet down, and I can't believe that sold.
They are so quick to turn e-mail records over to authorities for any little request.
Anything as large as aol needs to be watched closely.
I think these companies pay many bright folks to sit around and try to come up with ways they can like a dealer to an addict...
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