Reply-to: rosalind@netcreations.com
CC: online-news@planetarynews.com, spamad@internet.com,
John Audette - Moderator , KAWASAKI@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU,
SPAM-L@eva.dc.LSOFT.COM, inet-access@earth.com
Priority: normal
X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23)
Sender: owner-online-news@planetarynews.com
Precedence: bulk
Status: O
X-Status:
> "The bottom line is it will be a very sad day when a few powerful
> media companies like AOL can control Internet traffic in a way that
> benefits their own financial interests," Wallace added.
While I'm certainly no fan of spammers, I am deeply concerned about
the growing government involvement in regulating commercial speech on
the Internet. As many of you know, my company, NetCreations, runs a
service called PostMaster Direct Response
(http://www.netcreations.com/postdirect/) that allows direct
marketers to send commercial email messages to Internet users who
have voluntarily signed up to receive information about various
topics. To date, we host over 2 million email addresses sorted into
more than 1,000 topical categories. Yesterday, we announced the
creation of a new network which allows other sites to help us build
our lists in a "politically correct" way in return for credits towards
mailings of their own. From our own experience and those of our
clients, I can tell you that targeted direct email is one of the most
powerful marketing tools on the Internet today and one that must be
allowed to continue if the Internet is to remain a viable commercial
medium. If America Online wants to kick spammers out of its living
room by giving its members the ability to block unwanted email, Steve
and Ted won't get any complaints from me. But, when the FTC
starts coming into *my* living room and telling me who I can and
can't email and how I have to word my message headers, that's the day
that we as Internet marketers need to roll up our sleeves and fight.
The time is now for our nascent industry to band together to set
standards for ethical, responsible distribution of targeted
commercial messages on the Internet. If we don't, the next head on
the chopping block may be our own.
Rosalind
Rosalind Resnick
President
NetCreations, Inc.
http://www.netcreations.com/
718-237-1624
Reinventing Direct Marketing on the Web
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Posted to ONLINE-NEWS. Made possible by Nando.net - http://www.nando.net
From owner-online-news@nando.net Tue Nov 5 20:59:33 1996
Received: from parsifal.nando.net (root@parsifal.nando.net [152.52.2.7]) by cnj.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id UAA11359 ; for ; Tue, 5 Nov 1996 20:59:25 -0500
Received: (from root@localhost) by parsifal.nando.net (8.7/8.6.9) id RAA16042 for online-news-outgoing; Tue, 5 Nov 1996 17:40:56 -0500 (EST)
Received: from emout03.mail.aol.com (emout03.mx.aol.com [198.81.11.94]) by parsifal.nando.net (8.7/8.6.9) with SMTP id RAA16035 for ; Tue, 5 Nov 1996 17:40:51 -0500 (EST)