Slashdot Mirror
AOL Allegedly Censors 'Email Tax' Opponents
Mediacitizen writes "AOL was accused yesterday of censoring email to AOL customers that included a link to a site opposing AOL's proposed 'email tax.' Over 300 people reported that they had tried sending AOL subscribers messages that contained a link to www.DearAOL.com, but received a bounceback message informing them that their email 'failed permanently.' After the DearAOL.com Coalition -- 600 organizations convened by Free Press, MoveOn and EFF -- notified the press of this blocking, AOL quickly cleared the opposition URL from their filters, alleging a 'software glitch.'"
"software glitch"? Right. That's the most pathetic attempt at damage control I've seen in quite a while. I do agree that something has to be done about unwanted e-mails that keep flooding my inbox (my main e-mail address gets about 300 such e-mails a day) but AOL is driving down a road that will further alienate them from their users. By pulling stunts like this, they clearly demonstrate their motives as benefiting themselves and not the customers.
This does not bode well for the acceptance of e-mail tax. As if the general public wasn't against it in the first place.
Electric Pickle Online - gaming news, etc.
From the article: "Left to their own devices, AOL will always put its own self interest ahead of the public interest."
Well, yeah, no kidding. Since when did the "public interest" pay AOL for anything? Unless there is a law which says AOL cannot filter its "own" servers, too bad. It is AOL's right to do anything like this it wants to.
Is this the best thing to do? Obviously not, however don't be shocked when it does happen. Unless you control your own email completely (from the ISP right down to the server) you are relying on someone else. And that someone else ultimately has their interests in mind before yours.
Now, do some companies care about your interest? Sure, but they are not going to place your interest above theirs, otherwise they will be out of business. Supressing propangda which might cost you money; I don't think any business wouldn't consider that; and most, if not all, would try it.
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
I remember when AOL was useful, back in the dialup BBS days. But seriously... why would anyone in their right mind still use AOL? The fact that they still survive is absolutely impressive. There is no need for AOL. If you use it, just stop and go with another provider.
http://religiousfreaks.com/No law says they cant filter out what ever they want too, as long as they publsh the list to their subscribers ( and that may not be required, but good practice ) We aernt talking a goverment here. there is no 'censorship' clause..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you consider the AOL's CEO's brain as "software" :P
if they don't like it. Otherwise AOL is well within their rights to do as they wish. AOL is a private network. Let the consumer vote with their dollars.
This is funny because all these large corporate entities are proving (by shooting their own feet) that the Google 'do no evil' mantra is worth more than any advertising campaign....
I can see the future where such 'news articles' cause havoc at the next shareholder's meetings... sadly, that day has not yet arrived, but as the world of commerce gets flatter, it will...
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
The glitch, of course, being that they got caught.
Have you ever wondered How to Take Over
If they use heuristics and other methods for spam filtering that don't always work 100% reliably (I've had legit e-mail end up in the spam bin), it legitimately could have been because their spam filter just decided it was spam, and started dumping it. I'm not defending AOL, I think they suck, but just offering an alternate line of thought. Many ISPs use a human-based filter, the company I work for runs into it all the time, people sign up for our mailing list, and rather than cancel when they're done with it, they just click the "report as spam" button, and then all of our company is on their shit-list, even to those users who want to get our e-mails. Especially if somebody was mass-mailing AOL users that e-mail, it seems likely.
-JesseNothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
"Over 300 people reported that they had tried sending AOL subscribers messages that contained a link to www.DearAOL.com"
Sounds like a good candidate for a SPAM filter if you ask me.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Say hello to civil and criminal liability.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
AOL exists on name recognition and the ignorance of the customers that choose to use them as an ISP. Nothing new here. As such, this becomes the modus operandi for everything it does... "let's block these mails, but show them as bounced messages... our users are too dumb to know the difference anyway, right?" Still, nothing new here.
But AOL itself is stupid, thinking that EVERYONE is so blissfully unaware of it's business practices. Even moreso, that anyone would be OK with it.
I don't know which is worse... that AOL thinks it can get away with an e-mail tax, that it can censor e-mails opposing it, or that it thought it was perfectly OK to do either (or both).
Hey, AOL... there are still parts of your feet still down there... keep shooting.
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
I think abuses like this need to be more widely publicized and discussed to educated the masses of ignorant users. I find this just as offensive as having my snail mail filtered (even if AOL is a company and not a federal service). The common user needs to understand this situation.
ISPs in my experience have an attitude that it is their service and the users who depend on it are merely 'subs' (subscribers). While this perception may in fact be accurate, most users see it as 'their service' and view the ISP merely as a provider. So on one hand, most users spend their days thinking they are the 'always right' and 'all powerful due to their dollar' consumer. On the other hand ISPs tend to see their users as 'fat dumb and happy till something needs maintenance'.
This dichotomy can exist, because in the end most users are too ignorant about IT to know what they can reasonably demand and not reasonably demand. A user is just as likely to call AOL to demand help with excel as they are about their mail being filtered.
In the end users don't own the service they are renting, but ISPs need to learn to respect the rights of their users. The only way that is going to happen is if somehow, Joe six pack gets as pissed about this, as he would be if someone was filtering his mail.
You get caller ID
Telemarketing company pays extra to block caller ID on all outbound calls
You pay extra for an unlisted number
Telemarketing company pays extre for list of unlsted numbers
You pay for call block
Telemarketing company pays to bypass call block
The average AOL user is reason to doubt darwin
SecurityPub.com
Why should you think that AOL should be different? AOL is doing this blocking in order to fulfill the interests of their shareholders. The blocking was removed to fulfill the interests of their shareholders. They are required by law in the US to do so. In fact, if they didn't they could go to jail for failing to put the interests of the shareholders first. Why do you think that so many companies get fined for doing environmental damage? If it's going to save money by destroying some stream somewhere then they will do it for the best interests of the shareholders. If they are caught, well the fines are often nothing compared to the money they can save. AOL is no different than any other corporation in the US. Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Apple, and AOL (along with every other corporation) are all cut from the same cloth. The law made them that way. If you don't like it, CHANGE THE LAW.
For now, the best thing to do to oppose it is to visit DearAOL http://www.dearaol.com/ -- and signup in the right hand gutter "Sign The Letter as an Individual"
Their petition states:
In February 2006, AOL announced that it would accept payment for incoming emails. For these certified emails, it would skip its usual anti-spam filters and guarantee delivery for cash. Our coalition believes that the free passage of email between Internet users is a vital part of what makes the Internet work. When ISPs demand a cut of "pay-to-send" email, they're raising tollbooths on the open Net, interfering with the passage of data by demanding protection money at the gates of their customers' computers.
fak3r.com
I don't see any problem with AOL filtering out emails that they consider hurtful. They use the "AOL Constitution" known as TOS (Terms of Service). An AOL subscriber must abide by this TOS contract if s/he wants to continue being a subscriber of AOL's service.
I do not like AOL, and that is why I am not an AOL subscriber.
You join as a subscriber, you play by their rules. Once you join, you make a connection to their network and, that's just it, you are on THEIR NETWORK. It is their land and their 'domain.' They make the laws - their rules. I think you get the point.
Ya ya, we all hate AOL, but lets be reasonable here...
This WAS spam was it not? The article clearly says that 300 people reported they couldn't send a copy of this email. If 300 people reported it, I can only imagine how many thousands tried to send it.
If I was a spam filter, and I saw thousands of copies of the same email going out, I'd filter it too.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
State and Federal laws are quite clear on the fact that telemarketers CANNOT block their caller ID from showing up on a display or they would face a severe penalty.
I've actually tried calling some of the caller ID #'s that have shown up that are a telemarketing contractor or subcontractor and wound up with either a dead-end recording or a busy signal.
So CID #'s are next to useless in the immediate time being, only worthwhile to a person putting together a lawsuit agianst the joker that stacks call upon call upon call to the poor customer.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
That's been a mantra among the anti-spam community for years. According to that doctrine, AOL is perfectly within its rights to block whatever the hell it wants subject to its users' preferences.
That's a key issue: AOL's mail filters are not accountable to MoveOn, the EFF, Craigslist, or anyone else involved in DearAOL. They are accountable only to AOL and AOL's users.
Now is the time to cancel your AOL subscription!
Get computers and accessories from Linux-friendly manufacturers
The problem is a lot of telemarketers call from jurisdictions where that's not enforceable - hence the reason you'll see boiler rooms in Montreal buying long distance in bulk. Dirty rat bastards.
Mail to AOL from my mail servers just started bouncing again yesterday. The time is coming closer to tell my list members that if they are using AOL for email, they need to find another way if they want to use my lists.
I thought AOL is a software glitch.
Clearly, Gmail is the result of intelligent design, while AOL/Hotmail are services created by God to test our faith. DO NOT GIVE IN!
It was you or someone like you with whom I had the following conversation with a few years ago. It is a painful memory burned deep within my psyche.
AOL Rep: Thank you for waiting on hold for 53 minutes listening to the same 20 second recording over and over, how may I help you?
ME: I'd like to cancel AOL.
AOL Rep: Okay, no problem*. (*This is a trick)
ME: Great.
AOL Rep: I need to get your screen name.
ME: It's AOLSucks29785. I called myself that because AOLSucks1 through AOLSucks29784 were already taken.
AOL Rep: Do you live at 5022 Pheasant Circle, the white house with the blue shutters and a green Toyota parked in the front? Was you last telephone bill for $36.17? Did you have sex two nights ago for 28 minutes and could stand to put a little bit more fiber in your diet?
ME: [nervously] Uhhh... yeah.
AOL Rep: Okay, I've got you pulled up in our system. For verification purposes, what's your mother's maiden name?
ME: Henderson.
AOL Rep: I'm sorry, that's not correct.
ME: Um, yeah it is.
AOL Rep: Not according to our records. Has it changed recently?
ME: No, it's my mother's goddamn maiden name. It's been the same, like, forever.
AOL Rep: Well that's not what our computer says.
ME: I don't care about that, her maiden name is Henderson!
AOL Rep: Maybe when we first asked you, you told us her middle name instead of her maiden name.
ME: Well, her middle name is Sue.
AOL Rep: Nope, that's not it either. Try it one more time. What's your mother's maiden name?
ME: HENDERSON!
AOL Rep: Well why didn't you say that in the first place? Why did you tell me her maiden name was Williams?
ME: I DIDN'T!!
AOL Rep: Sir, I need you to calm down and speak to me respectfully or I will end this conversation.
ME: Look, I just need to cancel my AOL account. And please, don't waste your time or mine trying to read me that stupid script to get me to stay? Okay? I went through it before. The one where you ask me what I use the Internet for, and I tell you, and then you tell me all the ways that AOL supposedly makes it easier... don't do that. I just want to cancel.
AOL Rep: That's not a problem at all.
ME: Good.
AOL Rep: I would hate if someone used a script on me too.
ME: Well, exactly.
AOL Rep: So may I ask what sorts of things you use the Internet for?
ME: Dammit, you're using the script on me.
AOL Rep: No, sir, I wasn't. I was just making friendly conversation.
ME: I didn't call for friendly conversation, I called to get you to cancel a $30.00 per month bill for dial-up Internet when I can get super-fast high speed Internet for $19.99 per month.
AOL Rep: I bet that makes it really easy to watch movies and music videos online!
ME: I suppose, but --
AOL Rep: Did you know that AOL has a movie and music video service for high-speed internet that --
ME: Are you out of your mind?
AOL Rep: For just a low monthly fee, you can keep AOL and use it with your high-speed Internet!
ME: Why on God's Green Earth would I do that?
AOL Rep: AOL is so easy to use!
ME: I don't need Playskool Internet on my computer. I am capable of using a normal web browser.
AOL Rep: But it's --
ME: Just cancel my damn subscription.
Of course, two months later, what shows up on my credit card? AOL, charging me for their super-cool high-speed internet product that I specifically told them I didn't want. And in closing, I hate you forever.
I run a medium sized mailing list off my server, you-suck.com
I've got several dozen subscribers in the AOL domain, and have consistently have had problems with bouncing / filtering out of AOL. And usually for bogus reasons.
About one year ago they were filtering ALL email that contained tinurl tags, as a "security" measure. Just to show you how totally bogus it was, even the text tinyurl, tiny (space) url , etc were filtered - that is, just the phrase or two words, NOT EVEN A URL!
Recently someone replied to a post with a string of profanity, including the word FUCK several times in a row. Now everyone on the list are good friends, have been for years, and we jerk each others chains a great deal. No problem. For us at least, as AOL didn't see it that way, and banned ALL email from you-suck.com due to what the headers of their bounces claimed were"profanity violations". I know for a fact that nobody on my list complained to AOL as most are family and the rest good friends.
Totally bogus.
I couldn't even email folks exaplaing what was going on from you-suck.com, and had to use Gmail to tell folks about the problem and ask them for their help in getting email from my domain unblocked (AOL won't do squat for non subscribers).
Bingo. I sent out Gmail invites to every one of my AOL subscribers and two weeks ago the last switched over. Problem solved.
But not really - from AOLs pov. Several of those impacted noted that lots of email was helpfully being screened by AOL, including loads of email from what should be whitelisted, top of the shelf domains - CitiBank, Fidelity, yahoo!, I'm not sure what else.
So of these two dozen former AOL subscribers from my list, at least six are now former AOL subscribers as well, and several others are making plans to bolt as well.
And telling all their friends about AOL, the Nanny ISP.
A couple frustrating years of my time dealing with AOL bogus bounces, and I managed to get a bunch of folks off AOL.
Works for me.
A message from our sponsor
Oh good god no. That is the cancellations department (or as they call it the "Saves" department). They tried to make me take saves rollover calls once, I immediately and politely cancelled every account that the customer wanted cancelled. Lowest call time and highest customer satisfaction I think that queue ever saw. They never asked me to do it again...