AOL Up to No Good? Probably Not.
The DearAOL Coalition are up in arms over what they're calling e-mail censorship by AOL, but AOL insists that's not the case. Since February, the coalition has been railing against AOL's proposed e-mail certification program AOL is implementing with partner Goodmail, saying that the plan to charge for enhanced deliverability services threatens to undermine free e-mail as we know it. The latest alarm being sounded by DearAOL is the coalition's accusation that AOL began blocking all e-mails that contain the DearAOL.com URL today, and stopped only after being "caught red-handed" by the coalition. “Today’s events prove the DearAOL.com Coalition’s point entirely: Left to their own devices, AOL will always put its own self interest ahead of the public interest in a free and open Internet,” Timothy Karr, campaign director of coalition member Free Press, said in a statement