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It is NOT recommended that you join our mailing list from an AOL or Yahoo
email account as you will probably NOT receive it, or only get an altered version of our
newsletter!
America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail
accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from
companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must
promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked
entirely.
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-6035276.html?tag=tb
The Cigar Hut will not bow down to the extortion attempts by these companies
to pay for a free service, namely sending requested emails to our subscribers. We strongly
suggest you complain about these policies to AOL and Yahoo. If you want to join our
newsletter, please do so from any other email service than the 2 above.
If you have already joined our mailing list from an AOL or Yahoo Account and
would like to ensure you get our newsletters full of special savings and discounts, contact us with your existing email account and tell us the new one you
would like to change it to.
For a list of free email services that are NOT trying to extort funds from
the public, please click
here
=================
AOL's announcement that they are often deleting links and images from
emails from those who aren't whitelisted has created a firestorm from their
subscribers.
Here are some of the comments received in response to articles in
WebProNews about AOL's partnership with Goodmail:
When I saw the article about this in the Sunday paper I had much the same thoughts, only the
word "extortion" was the first one I thought of. If AOL, which has always had a cavalier
attitude about other companies, decides to make people pay to have their email delivered (and
that will be the next step), they will end up losing business. I, for one, would place a notice
on my opt-in email sign-up form that I cannot deliver to an aol address. That will mean AOL
customers will miss out on a ton of free information. Others will undoubtedly do the same
thing.
Your point about libel is a good one. The copyright laws might also come into play here. Huge
fines and court costs possible.
I think this is a trial balloon on AOL's part, though.
Posted by: Robert Cain
=================
AS a long suffering but very patient customer of AOL (8,Years) I finally took the plunge and
dumped AOL. This latest scam by AOL will hopefully put the final nail in their coffin. It is
another attempt at extortion and control by internet companies not only ISP's. You only have to
look at Intel, Microsoft and Google. At least Jessie James had the decency to wear a
mask.
Posted by: Phill
=================
When AOL and Yahoo start doing this my plan is just to ignore it. Next I might start saying
that "this site does not send email to AOL or Yahoo"- if enough people did this then there
might not be any value in people using Yahoo or AOL.
Posted by: Gary Bradshaw
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Am I reading this right. If I have an email account with Yahoo or AOL and have a paid
subscription to someone to receive a weekly newssheet, then Yahoo or AOL can decide that
because my supplier aren't paying them to deliver to me then they can unilaterally either block
links or whatever on that mail or even junk it.
Sounds like more than possible libel - could be theft
Posted by: Tony
=================
This is like the post office opening mail & removing or changing what is in the
envelope.
Infringement of privacy & criminal
offence in UK (felony level in usa)
& should be treated by the courts in the same way. next they will be adding their OWN
advertisements!
Posted by: ronangel
=================
RE: AOL's Email Tax
I hope you're right about AOL reversing course. For this to happen, they need to get a bloody
nose. By slipping the announcement in on Superbowl Sunday, they are trying to minimize the
initial PR damage. And, things have been surprisingly quiet. There needs to be a huge outcry.
The following is a press release we tossed out…
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/2/emw343224.htm
We do have a real dilemma. 20% of my customer base uses AOL or Yahoo. We're supposed to be
whitelisted with AOL, but since January, we've had trouble communicating with Yahoo customers.
I do not intend to pay goodmail. We are looking into Habeas and Bonded Sender. If spending $10K
a year or so would end delivery problems, I'd pay it in a heartbeat. I won't pay up to $150K,
which is what goodmail could cost. We'll probably run an announcement in a few more days
stating that we're not going to pay goodmail and will instead direct our subscribers to
different email providers (which, in fact, has already begun).
Thanks for fighting this. Lots of people need to fight it.
Matt Michel
CEO & President
The Service Roundtable
www.serviceroundtable.com
=================
Agree that that it sounds like a failed model to charge for the delivery of free subscription
emails. And I don't think people will pay for 99% of the free emails that they subscribe to for
the very reason that they are free. However, a way to somehow register the sender that would be
able for a users email app to use as a part of a filter function would maybe do the trick. It
wouldn't stop spammers, but it decrease their possibilities of getting through maybe?
Posted by: Michael
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I haven't studied AOL's plans and can't speak about it specifically, and some of what I have
heard seems ominous, but I for one am definitely willing to pay to get my mail through or
posting a bond at least. Too much valid mail is being blocked and this causes all kinds of
problems for small firms reaching their customers or members. Hopefully it also results in a
reduction of spam.
Posted by: Anonymous
=================
This is the thin end of the wedge. I would strongly suggest that any service provider that does
not allow mail from any source to go to the recipient as was intended (spam filters as used at
present excepted) & who does not provide an opt out box to tick, should have all their
services boycotted by users in every country. Vote them out with your wallet if you don't like
what they do!
Posted by: ronangel
More info on this issue can be found here:
AOL, Yahoo to Charge for Email
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