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Rosalind Resnick wrote:
>
> > "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.

It seems to me that the recent court decision means the government
*declined* involvement in commercial speech, by noting that AOL (a
business) had the right to reject unsolicited and mostly unwanted
emailings from another business. That allows the free market to be free,
no? So if customers *want* junk email they can disengage AOL's
spam-filter, move to a service more receptive to the banished email, or
press AOL to reverse its actions. And I strongly suspect AOL will
monitor how people respond to the filters. I suspect equally strongly
that AOL customers will be happy with them -- the junk mail is a very
common source of complaint on AOL.

> 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.

I don't think anyone, court or net.organization, objects to emailing
to people who have "voluntarily signed up". That's sure not the business
model of the Cyber-people.

> 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.

You'd better not target me if I haven't painted a circle on my email
address. Just because it's a powerful tool for you doesn't make it
pleasant for me. "must be allowed to continue"? Hardly. How about
allowing people to decide for themselves what and how much "targeted
direct email" they're willing to receive? It's the "targets" that
pay to receive and read it.

> 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.

This court decision preserved email freedom for recipients and their
access companies, didn't specify anything about who/can/can't/wording.

> 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.

The decision wouldn't have been necessary if the senders were ethical
and responsible. They created the problem, not AOL or AOL customers.

--
Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc.     Voice: (703) 556-9121
7718 Iroquois Court, Falls Church VA 22043-2516        FAX: (703) 556-0906
Host: AOL Pro's Corner Forum (http://cpcug.org/user/gabe)   gabe@cpcug.org
Internet SIG list: SUBSCRIBE NETSIG-L fn ln ---> listserv@listserv.aol.com


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