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AOL SPAM DISPUTE ESCALATES

Business group threatens to release millions of e-mail addresses

* Group says AOL is anti-small business * AOL calls plan 'cyber-terrorism' * Spam spat * Related stories and sites

December 31, 1997 Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT)

CHINO, California (CNN) -- An Internet business group and the world's biggest Internet service provider, America Online, were poised Wednesday for a legal showdown in a dispute over pitching products and services to AOL users via e-mail.

If AOL doesn't back down from its opposition to the National Organization of Internet Commerce (NOIC), the California-based group threatens to put the e-mail addresses of millions of AOL users on its Web site, making them available for downloading by any business, group or individual seeking to make mass electronic mailing

NOIC, a non-profit trade organization representing small businesses and bulk-mailers, originally set Thursday as the day it would reveal the e-mail addresses of 1 million of AOL's 10 million customers.

On Wednesday, however, NOIC escalated the threat, announcing it would release 5 million AOL e-mail addresses on January 8.

AOL vowed to fight NOIC in court, if necessary, and said it hoped the group would reconsider.

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