IP: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 08:49:57 -0700
> From: Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com>
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>, declan () well com
> Subject: [Fwd: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!]
>
> Hello Dave, and Declan,
>
> Alan Clegg, the "vitim", gave me permission to forward his email to you
> two....
>
> This was posted to the public NANOG list yesterday evening. It provides
> an interesting insight into the way that AOL has evolved, and is
> evolving. Roughly speaking, AOL is setting rules for accepting and
> delivering email to subscribers, under the apparent guise of attempting
> to control spam.
>
> The mailing list company, at mailinglists.org, has a system in place to
> make sure that only legitimate subscriptions can be accepted. The system
> has no history of spamming or abuse at all.
>
> What is interesting here to me, is that were I an AOL subscriber (I am
> not), paying my normal subscription fee, I would still not be able to
> receive mail that I specifically wanted, requested, and authorised.
> Which really does lead one to believe that this could be seen as pretty
> real censorship.
>
> Of course, AOL has the right to do this, because AOL is not classified
> as a common carrier, and owns the network it runs. But it also
> apparently owns its users' mailboxes ;-).
>
> H'mmmmm.
>
> --
> Rodney Joffe
> CenterGate Research Group, LLC.
> http://www.centergate.com
> "Technology so advanced, even we don't understand it!"


> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 21:57:43 -0400
> From: Alan Clegg <alan () clegg com>
> To: nanog () merit edu
> Subject: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!
>
> Several people on this list responded to my prior queries about dealing
> with AOL and their black-hole "anti-spam" policy.
>
> I've been around and around with AOL, and have finally decided that I'm
> *NOT* going to agree to their 'terms'.  With the agreement of my laywer,
> I've posted the terms to which I was being asked to agree.
>
>         http://www.mailinglists.org/aol.html
>
> Have a nice weekend!
> AlanC
> --
>     Alan Clegg                          I do UNIX and Networks
>   alan () clegg com                    I don't have any certification
>                                           I have experience



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/