This message is from: Steve McIlree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Please forgive me for using this forum for a non-Fjord issue, but I believe this is something which could affect the future of this List, others like it you may receive and enjoy, and the very future of email in general. I have in the past, warned subscribers who use AOL and Hotmail to receive their FjordHorse List that they may be missing many messages or Digests because of their Service Providers arbitrary practices of SPAM identification. Up until now I have been willing to give them the benefit of doubt, chalking the disappearing email up to bugs in new filtering software. However, now AOL is proposing to profit by making the practice official. They will pass advertising from large bulk emailers, who pay for the privilege, right past their SPAM filters and into your inbox, while email from your friends, family and the FjordHorse List will arrive with a less preferential status. Even if you are not an AOL user, please read the message attached below and respond to the petition if you want to help prevent this inequity.
-- Steve McIlree - Pferd, Skipper & Clust - Omaha, NE/Las Cruces, NM, USA If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise. --Unknown ===========================Received Today============================= The very existence of online civic participation and the free Internet as we know it are under attack by America Online. AOL recently announced what amounts to an "email tax." Under this pay-to-send system, large emailers willing to pay an "email tax" can bypass spam filters and get guaranteed access to people's inboxeswith their messages having a preferential high-priority designation.1 Charities, small businesses, civic organizing groups, and even families with mailing lists will inevitably be left with inferior Internet service unless they are willing to pay the "email tax" to AOL. We need to stop AOL immediately so other email hosts know that following AOL's lead would be a mistake. Can you sign this emergency petition to America Online and forward it to your friends? Sign here: http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/ Petition statement: "AOL, don't auction off preferential access to people's inboxes to giant emailers, while leaving people's friends, families, and favorite causes wondering if their emails are being delivered at all. The Internet is a force for democracy and economic innovation only because it is open to all Internet users equallywe must not let it become an unlevel playing field." Sign here: http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/ AOL is one of the biggest email hosts in the worldif we stop them from unleashing this threat to the Internet, others will know not to try it. Everyone who signs this petition will be sent information on how to contact AOL directly, as well as future steps that can be taken until AOL drops its new "email tax" policy. AOL's proposed pay-to-send system is the first step down the slippery slope toward dividing the Internet into two classes of usersthose who get preferential treatment and those who are left behind. AOL pretends nothing would change for senders who don't pay, but that's not reality. The moment AOL switches to a world where giant emailers pay for preferential treatment, AOL faces this internal choice: spend money to keep spam filters up-to-date so legitimate email isn't identified as spam, or make money by neglecting their spam filters and pushing more senders to pay for guaranteed delivery. Which do you think they'll choose? If AOL has its way, the big loser will be regular email userswhose email from friends, family, and favorite causes will increasingly go undelivered and disappear into the black hole of a neglected spam filter. Another loser will be democracy and economic innovation on the Internetwhere small ideas become big ideas specifically because regular people can spread ideas freely on a level playing field. If an "email tax" existed when MoveOn began, we never would have gotten off the groundindeed, AOL's proposal will hurt every membership group, regardless of political affiliation. That's why groups all across the political spectrum are joining together with charities, non-profits, small businesses, labor unions, and Internet watchdog groups in opposition to AOL's "email tax." The president of the Association for Cancer Online Resources (ACOR) points out the real-world urgency of this issue: "In essence, this is going to block every AOL subscriber suffering from any form of cancer from receiving potentially life-saving information they may not be able to get from any other source, simply because a non-profit like ACORwhich serves more than 55,000 cancer patients and caregivers every daycannot afford to pay the fee." Can you sign this emergency petition to America Online and forward it to your friends? http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/ Thank you for all you do. Eli Pariser, Noah T. Winer, Adam Green, and the MoveOn.org Civic Action team Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 P.S. The Electronic Frontier Foundation summed up the "email tax" issue beautifully: Email being basically free isn't a bug. It's a feature that has driven the digital revolution. It allows groups to scale up from a dozen friends to a hundred people who love knitting to half-a-million concerned citizens without a major bankroll. Once a pay-to-speak system like this gets going, it will be increasing difficult for people who don't pay to get their mail through. The system has no way to distinguish between ordinary mail and bulk mail, spam and non-spam, personal and commercial mail. It just gives preference to people who pay.
