I wouldn't personally use AOL in any event, but their use of their computers is their business. I do have some doubts as to whether AOL subscribers necessarily signed on for this - as noted on the list-managers list, a consent arrangement would thus be preferable. The other argument of the Cyber Promotions jerks is nonsense - how does AOL blocking affect the rest of the Internet? -Allen
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Sep 6, 1996 12:23 p.m. EDT) -- A federal judge has = ordered America Online to stop blocking up to 1.8 million "junk" e-mail = files flooding subscribers' electronic mailboxes daily from a = Philadelphia marketing firm.
[...]
Pending a trial tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12, U.S. District Judge = Charles R. Weiner ordered AOL Thursday to lift the block on Cyber = Promotions' mailings. Weiner is presiding over a suit Cyber Promotions = Inc. filed accusing AOL of trying to drive it out of business.
Cyber Promotions controls three of the five sites blocked by AOL. The = others -- one that distributes software to create bulk e-mail lists and = one that had sent out ads for Internet video porn -- were not affected = by Weiner's order.
AOL attorney David Phillips said the company was considering an appeal. = He said AOL customers had been "complaining vociferously about Cyber = Promotions' junk mail."
Sanford A. Wallace, the president of Cyber Promotions, was pleased about = the decision.
"We feel that America Online has violated the civil rights of their = members and has violated our rights to send e-mail through the Internet, = which AOL does not own," he said.
Although unsolicited mail sent through the post office in the United = States is not considered illegal, the rules have yet to be defined in = cyberspace. The larger services -- AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve -- all = have policies forbidding mass junk mailings