Fw: Stop the AOL 'Email Tax'
2006-03-14 by Erik Bowen
Dear Erik,
Online activism is under attack by America Online.
AOL has announced plans to charge a corporate "email tax" to guarantee access to user inboxes. Under this pay-to-send system, large emailers can bypass spam filters.
Under this scheme, charities, small businesses, civic organizing groups, and even families with mailing lists will be left with inferior Internet service unless they are willing to pay AOL's fee.
We need to stop AOL and send a message to other email providers -- such as Yahoo!, MSN and Google -- that imposing a similar "email tax" is a mistake.
Please sign the petition to AOL and forward it to your friends
The petition urges AOL to stop auctioning off preferential access to people's inboxes: "The Internet is a force for free speech, democracy, and economic innovation because it is open and equally accessible to all Internet users. We must keep it a level playing field."
Sign the petition here:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/dearaol
AOL's proposed pay-to-send system is the first step down a slippery slope that will harm the free flow of ideas and innovations on the Internet.
The "email tax" would actually reward AOL financially for failing to maintain its spam filtering service. This system could disrupt the communications of millions who cannot afford to pay their fees, while setting a dangerous precedent that other large email service providers will follow.
Stop AOL's "email tax" before it spreads.
Thank you,
Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
P.S. Read the recent San Jose Mercury News editorial opposing AOL's "email tax."
P.P.S. Visit Net Freedom Now! to learn more about corporate threats to Internet freedom.
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