Forwarded from portside listserv
[In the last week, the coalition to stop the drive to
create an 'email tax' has mushroomed from 50 to 500
organizations. Individuals may also add their voices at
the following address: http://www2.dearaol.co
m/letter
-- moderator.]
From: all dearaol.com
To: postmasteraol.com
Date: Tue Feb 28 13:00:00 EST 2006
Subject: An Open Letter To America Online
We wish to express our serious concern with AOL's adoption
of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail, which is a threat to the free
and open Internet.
This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which
affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to
an "email tax" for every email sent, in return
for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters
and go directly to AOL members' inboxes. Those who did not
pay the "email tax" would increasingly be left
behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that
your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted
mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation.
AOL's "email tax" is the first step down a
slippery slope that will harm the Internet itself. The
Internet is a revolutionary force for free speech, civic
organizing, and economic innovation precisely because it is
open and accessible to all Internet users equally. On a free
and open Internet, small ideas can become big ideas
overnight. As Internet advocacy groups, charities,
non-profits, businesses, civic organizing groups, and email
experts, we ask you to reconsider your pay-to-send proposal
and to keep the Internet free.
A pay-to-send system won't help the fight against spam - in
fact, this plan assumes that spam will continue and that
mass mailers will be willing to pay to have their emails
bypass spam filters. And non-paying spammers will not reduce
the amount of mail they throw at your filters simply because
others pay to evade them.
Perversely, the new two-tiered system AOL proposes would
actually reward AOL financially for failing to maintain its
email service. The chief advantage of paying to send
CertifiedEmail is that it can bypass AOL's spam filters.
Non-paying customers are being asked to trust that after
paid mail goes into effect, AOL will properly maintain its
spam filters so only unwanted mail gets thrown away.
But the economic incentives point the other way: 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.
Poor delivery of mail turns from being a problem that AOL
has every incentive to fix to something that could actually
make them money if the company ignores it.
The bottom-line is that charging an "email tax"
actually gives AOL a financial incentive to degrade email
for non-paying senders. This would disrupt the
communications of millions who cannot afford to pay your
fees-including the non-profits, civic organizations,
charities, small businesses, and community mailing lists
that have arisen for every topic under the sun and that make
email so vital to your subscribers.
And what if other Internet service providers retaliate and
start demanding their own ransoms to accept mail from your
millions of users? Your company works hard to simplify the
Internet. Don't start a surcharge war that will complicate
it with tiered services and dozens of middleman fees for
every simple act of communication.
We have always been happy working together with you to fight
spam and phishing. We have a common enemy in spammers. We
are happy to work together to develop open approaches that
attack the problem of spam and phishing. But a pay-to-send
"certified" system does not help to fight spam.
It only serves to make the Internet less free for everyone.
We stand together in asking you to reconsider your decision
to use CertifiedEmail.
Respectfully,
Over five hundred groups, including our original signers:
AFL-CIO
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
American Academy of HIV Medicine
Association of Cancer Online Resources
Chris Pirillo, Lockergnome
Common Cause
Communications Workers of America
Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Consumer Federation of America
Craig Newmark
Democracy For America
Democracy In Action
Democratic National Committee
Donor Digital
Drug Policy Alliance
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Free Press
Friends of the Earth
Gun Owners of America
LabourStart
Michael Geist
Moveon.org Civic Action
National Electronics Service Dealers Association
Oxfam America
Patriot Post
Peacefire
RightMarch.com
RiseUp Networks
Tim O'Reilly,
O'Reilly Media
United Farm Workers
Working Assets
American Rights At Work
Aut-2B-Home
Brothers In Action
Californians Against Waste
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
Center for American Progress Action Fund
Center for Digital Democracy
Chicago Media Action
Chin Music Press
Cleanpeace.org
Connecticut Parent Power
Covenant College
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice
Earthworks
Englewood Ob/Gyn
Equality North Carolina
Free Schuylkill River Park
Kaufman County ARES, Inc.
Kaufman County CERT, Inc.
Kaufman County Citizen Corps, Inc.
Life-Zone
M+R Strategic Services
Maryland League of Conservation Voters
Media Alliance
National Video Resources
North Carolina Harm Reduction Center
Prometheus Radio
Roots of Promise
Sinapu
Southern Search & Rescue, Inc.
Southern Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.
The Service Roundtable
Working America
zcss.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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