In two decisions on Monday and Tuesday, controversial spammer Cyber Promotions received differing orders from CompuServe and AOL regarding just where and how it can send junk email. While CompuServe managed to ban Cyber Promotions mail from its network, the AOL settlement allows the company to continue with its business while forcing the spam "industry" to rethink strategies.
"It's a perfect compromise," Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions, says of the AOL settlement.
On Monday, the drawn-out lawsuit between CompuServe and Cyber Promotions ended when an Ohio lower court issued a preliminary injunction against Cyber Promotions, preventing Wallace from sending email solicitations to CompuServe addresses. But in an out-of-court settlement on Tuesday, AOL signed an agreement that allows Wallace to send junk mail to AOL members - but only if they want it.
CompuServe was surprised by AOL's decision. "AOL has agreed to disagree," says spokeswoman Gail Whitcomb. "Basically he [Wallace] will still be able to send email to AOL users. That's probably one more thing that will make their users unhappy. Our users have shown us that they don't want email for the most part, and we're helping them out."
The CompuServe decision won't significantly affect Wallace's current practices: He has not sent email to CompuServe members since October. According to the AOL settlement, Wallace won't have to reduce the amount of email that he's sending, currently averaging 1.8 million emails a day. What he must do, however, is limit the number of domains he's sending the email from. Rather than changing his domain name every day, as he currently does, Wallace will now send email only from five pre-determined domains. This will allow AOL's Preferred Mail tool - which allows users to block unwanted email from known spammers - to work after months of ineffectiveness due to his shifting, unblockable IP addresses.
"The decisions aren't very different in spirit: The end result was saying that AOL had the right to block out email, or in the CompuServe case, not receive it at all." says Stanton McCandlish, program director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "[The CompuServe decision] may be heavy-handed. It might be better to have CompuServe do what AOL does and just block what they don't want."
The decisions highlight changes going on in the bulk email business. As online networks take spammers to task, and as states such as Nevada work to pass anti-spam laws, bulk emailers are being forced to pay more attention to whether spam recipients actually want that mail. Some companies are trying to change their strategy accordingly. Infamous spammer Jeff Slayton, for example, set up the group Conscientious Advertisers for Responsible Email, which encourages spammers to send a type of pre-spam warning recipients that they are on a bulk email list, and asking whether they want to be removed.
"These decisions will shift our business model to the 'opt-in' so that people will never get email unless they specifically want it," says Wallace. "It's a general trend for the industry. I think we're going to keep people happy, as well as convincing our advertisers that email is only going to the people who want to see it."
In the meantime, Cyber Promotions plans to appeal the CompuServe decision.
