February 23, 2006 Political Group Tries To Stop AOL's Certified Email Service By Antone Gonsalves Courtesy of Page 1 of 2 MoveOn.org, a liberal political group, said Thursday it has launched a petition drive that calls on America Online Inc. to halt plans to launch a paid certified email service that would bypass filters and deliver messages directly to subscribers. The was emailed to all 3 million MoveOn.org members on Wednesday, Adam Green, spokesman for the political group's Civic Action unit, said. MoveOn.org members who subscribe to AOL, a division of Time Warner Inc, were sent the petition last week. The group has gathered more than 200,000 signatures, Green said. MoveOn.org plans to hold a news conference on Tuesday to unveil a number of organizations that have joined it in opposing AOL's pay-to-send system, Green said. Those groups include political organizations from the left and the right, nonprofits, businesses and Internet advocacy groups. Among the Internet entrepreneurs who have joined the petition drive is Craig Newmark, founder of the popular online classifieds service, Green said. MoveOn.org claims AOL's certified email program, which it plans to launch this quarter, would eventually lead to slower delivery and inferior service for charities, small businesses, civic organizations and individuals who can't afford to pay for sending bulk email. In addition, offering guaranteed delivery only to paying email senders destroys the Internet as a neutral platform in which everyone is treated equally, a practice that has enabled Internet startups to compete with larger established firms, MoveOn.org said. "The Internet only thrives if it's free to everybody, and everybody is equal on it," Green said. "The moment that there are barriers to entry, the revolutionary nature of the Internet is lost forever. Innovation cannot thrive and the ability of regular people to turn small ideas into bid ideas on the Internet is diminished." AOL, which has 26 million subscribers, said MoveOn.org was wrong in saying that email services for nonpaying senders would degrade. The two organizations had met before the start of the petition drive, but failed to reach an agreement. "We don't mind when organizations make philosophical and political arguments, as long as they have the correct facts," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. "After having a conversation with them, it was pretty clear they weren't interested in providing their members with accurate information or the truth." E-mail This Story Print This Story Page 2: next page Page 1 | 2 Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			Spyware And Adware Continue To Plague PCs Morgan Stanley Muddles Through An E-Mail Mess Ignoring E-Mail Is A Sure Way To Lose Business FTC Smacks Spammer With $900K Fine Want To Lose Business? Ignore Customer Email Researchers Warn Of Coming Tax Scams     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.