Not so fast
Just to make sure you have the facts, this came from Snopes.com and it isn't just AOL... few points about some facets of this scheme that are often misrepresented: Referring to the proposed system as one which will implement an "e-mail tax" is inaccurate and misleading. No one is proposing that end users — ordinary AOL and Yahoo subscribers — be charged for sending or receiving e-mail. AOL and Yahoo are proposing to assess a cost-of-business surcharge to companies who want to ensure their commercial messages reach the inboxes of AOL and Yahoo subscribers instead of being diverted to trash folders by filters already in place to trap unsolicited commercial e-mail (better known as "spam"). E-mail senders who opt not to pay the surcharge will not be prevented from sending messages to AOL and Yahoo subscribers. Their messages will simply continue to pass through the same spam filters both AOL and Yahoo have had in place for years. The notion that non-commercial or non-profit on-line groups will be priced out of existence by being required to "pay thousands of dollars for every email message sent" is unfounded. Nobody is proposing that such groups' messages be blocked, or that they be handled any differently that they are now. Yes, such messages will have to get past spam filters before they're delivered, but that's already the case, and it has been for a long time. On the last point, we can speak from experience as an organization that has long sent out weekly free mailings to a very large subscriber base (and our mailings are particularly susceptible to being filtered out as spam or fraud attempts, because much of what we write about are the very same hoaxes, scams, and frauds that are being circulated via e-mail). Many, many e-mail providers (not just AOL and Yahoo) have long had in place filters to trap or strip e-mail sent to large numbers of recipients or containing external web links and embedded images (because those features are hallmarks of spam and fraud). The best way for AOL and Yahoo subscribers to ensure that our mailings reach them is to be sure to designate our address in their accounts as an acceptable e-mail sender, an option that will not be changing ("As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam"). We have on occassion had problems with some e-mail providers (including AOL) mistakenly flagging our newsletters as spam and blocking them entirely; usually a single e-mail or phone call is sufficient to clear up the problem. Of all the Internet providers we've dealt with in this regard, AOL has far been the most polite, responsive, and easy to deal with. (Some critics maintain that legitimate messages from non-surcharge-paying companies with whom subscribers already do business — such as order confirmations or notifications of special deals) could get flagged as spam and sent to trash folders, especially since subscribers can't necessarily anticipate the return address such messages will be sent from in order to authorized them in advance — but again, it's already the case that such messages are subject to spam filtering. The AOL/Yahoo scheme merely offers companies an option for avoiding an existing problem. Last updated: 23 February 2006
