Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/01/protest_aol_email/
Opposition to AOL's 'email tax' grows
AOL annoys gun owners, greens, farm unions...almost everyone...
Posted in Spam, 1st March 2006 12:49 GMT
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More than 50 organisations are joining forces to protest against AOL's plan to start charging for email.
AOL is planning to charge mass-emailers a fee to avoid the ISP's spam filters and guarantee that their marketing emails arrive straight in AOL subscribers' inboxes.
But 54 groups - ranging from Gun Owners of America to Oxfam America and Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist - are asking AOL to rethink the decision.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is organising the protest through the website www.dearaol.com (http://www.dearaol.com) Almost 1,500 individuals have already signed up in support.
The groups are concerned that having first and second class delivery for email will put charities and not-for-profit groups at a disadvantage. If you cannot afford to pay the charge your messages are likely to end up in a spam filter rather than an inbox.
The open letter also points out that the proposed changes would effectively remove any financial incentive for AOL to fight spam.
The letter says: "The moment AOL switches to a two-tiered internet where giant emailers pay for preferential service, AOL will face a simple business choice: spend money to keep regular spam filters up-to-date, or make money by neglecting their spam filters and pushing more senders to pay for guaranteed delivery."
The groups claim to represent 15m people - 3m of them AOL subscribers. It wants people to sign the petition, phone AOL and complain, and get blogging. ®