IP: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 08:49:57 -0700
>From: Rodney Joffe <rjoffe@centergate.com>
>To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>, declan@well.com
>Subject: [Fwd: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!]
>
>Hello Dave, and Declan,
>
>Alan Clegg, the "vitim", gave me permission to forward his email to you
>two....
>
>This was posted to the public NANOG list yesterday evening. It provides
>an interesting insight into the way that AOL has evolved, and is
>evolving. Roughly speaking, AOL is setting rules for accepting and
>delivering email to subscribers, under the apparent guise of attempting
>to control spam.
>
>The mailing list company, at mailinglists.org, has a system in place to
>make sure that only legitimate subscriptions can be accepted. The system
>has no history of spamming or abuse at all.
>
>What is interesting here to me, is that were I an AOL subscriber (I am
>not), paying my normal subscription fee, I would still not be able to
>receive mail that I specifically wanted, requested, and authorised.
>Which really does lead one to believe that this could be seen as pretty
>real censorship.
>
>Of course, AOL has the right to do this, because AOL is not classified
>as a common carrier, and owns the network it runs. But it also
>apparently owns its users' mailboxes ;-).
>
>H'mmmmm.
>
>--
>Rodney Joffe
>CenterGate Research Group, LLC.
>http://www.centergate.com
>"Technology so advanced, even we don't understand it!"


>Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 21:57:43 -0400
>From: Alan Clegg <alan@clegg.com>
>To: nanog@merit.edu
>Subject: AOL Terms and Conditions -- Revealed!
>
>Several people on this list responded to my prior queries about dealing
>with AOL and their black-hole "anti-spam" policy.
>
>I've been around and around with AOL, and have finally decided that I'm
>*NOT* going to agree to their 'terms'.  With the agreement of my laywer,
>I've posted the terms to which I was being asked to agree.
>
>         http://www.mailinglists.org/aol.html
>
>Have a nice weekend!
>AlanC
>--
>     Alan Clegg                          I do UNIX and Networks
>   alan@clegg.com                    I don't have any certification
>                                           I have experience



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