From: http://cnn.com
CNN - AOL spam dispute escalates - Dec. 31, 1997  
AOL spam dispute escalates  
Business group threatens to release millions of e-mail 
addresses  
In this story: 
* Group says AOL is anti-small business 
* AOL calls plan 'cyber-terrorism' 
* Spam spat 
December 31, 1997
  Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT)     
CHINO, California (CNN) -- An Internet business group and 
the world's biggest Internet service provider, America 
Online, were poised Wednesday for a legal showdown in a 
dispute over pitching products and services to AOL users via 
e-mail.  
If AOL doesn't back down from its opposition to the National 
Organization of Internet Commerce (NOIC), the  California-
based group threatens to put the e-mail addresses of 
millions of AOL users on its Web site, making them available 
for downloading by any business, group or individual seeking 
to make mass electronic mailing 
NOIC, a non-profit trade organization representing small 
businesses and bulk-mailers, originally set Thursday as the 
day it would reveal the e-mail addresses of 1 million of 
AOL's 10 million customers.   
On Wednesday, however,  NOIC escalated the threat, 
announcing it would release 5 million AOL e-mail addresses 
on January 8. 
AOL vowed to fight NOIC in court, if necessary, and said it 
hoped the group would reconsider. 
The e-mail addresses NOIC said it will post are already 
available on CD-ROMs at prices ranging up to $300 depending 
on the number of names. 
AOL does not profit on such transactions but it does make 
money by charging businesses for access to its customers. 
  
Group says AOL is anti-small business
NOIC president Joe Melle said his group is making the threat 
against AOL because it believes the online service is trying 
to put small companies on the Internet out of business. He 
told the Los Angeles Times that barring the use of 
affordable bulk e-mail on the network would prevent small 
business from gaining access to as many as half the regular 
users of the Internet.  
NOIC "is not making any profit and has nothing to gain by 
giving these names away except gaining more  members," Melle 
said in faxes and e-mail messages to news organizations. 
On Tuesday, America Online sent a letter to NOIC promising 
to "seek full legal redress, including compensatory and 
punitive damages," if the e-mail addresses are posted on the 
Web.  
  
AOL calls plan 'cyber-terrorism'
"We really view this as an act of threatened cyber-
terrorism, and we don't intend to give in to it," Randall 
Boe, AOL associate general counsel, told the Times.  AOL 
customers lodge thousands of complaints about spam every 
day, he said.  
Melle said his group was responding to AOL's threat to sue 
by  increasing the promised list of addresses.  If AOL 
"wishes to  discuss policies with us or agrees to hear our 
proposals and work with us like responsible businesses . . . 
we look forward to talking with them," the NOIC president 
said. 
  
Spam spat
The proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages, 
commonly referred to as junk mail or "spam," has become one 
of the Internet's biggest problems.   
Customers of online services who pay for the time they 
remain connected consider "spam" mail a costly nuisance.   
Even those who pay a flat fee for unlimited access call the 
junk e-mail intrusive and time-consuming to delete. 
Among the items inundating electronic mailboxes are annoying 
or offensive messages, some of them offering sexually 
explicit material or get-rich-quick schemes.  AOL says at 
any given time 5 percent to 30 percent of its  e-mail 
traffic is spam.   
Correspondent Brian Nelson contributed to this report.     
 
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