America Online Inc doesn’t think its subscribers want all that junk mail that comes unbidden to them over the Internet and so it has begun blocking unsolicited electronic mail from five major bulk-mail operators on the Internet, and promises a feature to block mail from specific electronic mail addresses later this month. Needless to say, reports the Wall Street Journal, the junk mailers are not happy about it, and Cyber Promotions Inc, which runs two of the services that America Online started blocking on Wednesday, still managed to send out an electronic mailing to 1.3m people, many of them America Online subscribers. Cyber Promotions, Philadelphia has filed suit against America Online for interfering with its contractual agreements with business partners, and contends the company’s actions violate the First Amendment saying if this was postal mail, this would be a federal offense – but then you don’t subscribe to a specific postal service, and hand it a mandate to try to protect your interests.
