AOL sues porn company over alleged spam

From...

by Todd R. Weiss

(IDG) -- America Online Inc. is suing the operators of a Web-based pornography company over millions of unsolicited e-mails with sexual content that the company has allegedly sent to AOL members since May 1999.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia, AOL charged Cyber Entertainment Network with illegally using its computer systems to send millions of sexual-oriented messages touting the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company's adult Web sites to AOL members. That was done in violation of AOL's antispam policies and member service agreements, the suit alleges.

The messages are being sent "indiscriminately to AOL members without regard to whether the member has any desire to view the adult material, or whether the member account is accessible to children," according to the lawsuit.

Nicholas Graham, a spokesman for Dulles, Va.-based AOL, today said the suit was filed last month only after attempts had been made in vain to contact Cyber Entertainment Network officials and ask for cooperation in halting the alleged spamming activities.

IDG.net INFOCENTER Computerworld main page Computerworld's topic-oriented communities Computerworld's IT career center Free daily newsletters Related IDG.net Stories Firm loses bid for restraining order against anti-spam group Two sentenced in e-mail spam scam The spam-tastic year 2000 Features Cool gifts for cool nerds Mastering e-commerce by degrees Fast-track training puts nontechies in IT jobs Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com SunWorld IDG.net search

The 13-count, 39-page legal action charges the adult entertainment company, which is known legally as Netvision Audiotext Inc., with allowing and encouraging its employees and contract Webmasters to send millions of unsolicited e-mails to AOL members. The suit claims that the actions constitute theft of AOL's computer services, trademark infringement and violations of Virginia and federal laws.

AOL is seeking $10 in damages for each unsolicited e-mail message that was sent and $25,000 for each day during which such messages were transmitted using AOL's computer network. Among the individuals named in the suit are John Bennett Jr., who is identified as president and chairman of Cyber Entertainment Network, and Joseph Elkind, who is identified as the company's CEO.

Phone calls to Cyber Entertainment Network were answered by a receptionist who said that all company executives were out of town and couldn't be reached for comment. Cyber Entertainment's corporate Web site includes an "acceptable use" policy that says the company has "zero tolerance . . . for unsolicited and/or unauthorized e-mail" and does not "knowingly profit" from spamming activities.

But the AOL lawsuit charges that each person in Cyber Entertainment's team of webmasters sent out between 6,000 and 37.5 million bulk e-mails to AOL members via the online giant's network. The unsolicited messages caused members to flood AOL with thousands of complaints, with as many as 250,000 recorded in a single day, according to the lawsuit.

In its complaint, AOL also charges that Cyber Entertainment webmasters included hyperlinks to adult Web sites in the messages they sent. Using special software coding, the webmasters received monetary credits and commissions from the company for bringing in AOL users who clicked on the attached URLs, according to the suit.

Anne Mitchell, director of public and legal affairs at Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC (MAPS) in Redwood City, Calif., said the antispam organization supports AOL's legal stand against Cyber Entertainment.

"We applaud any action that any company takes to protect [against spamming]," Mitchell said. "We believe strongly that everyone has the right to say 'no.'" Lawsuits such as the one filed by AOL are "just one tool in the arsenal to combat unsolicited commercial e-mail," she added.

MAPS maintains a blacklist of alleged spammers that many Internet service providers and corporate messaging administrators use as a guide for blocking e-mail messages. But it also is facing legal action from companies that are trying to get themselves removed from the blacklist.

For example, Pembroke, Mass.-based Web hosting firm Media3 Technologies LLC filed suit against MAPS in U.S. District Court in Boston last month. But MAPS said earlier this week that the judge handling that case had rejected Media3's request for a temporary restraining order that would have required more than 1,500 IP addresses held by the company to be deleted from the spamming list (see "Firm loses bid for restraining order against anti-spam group," link below).

Two sentenced in major e-mail spam scam
January 5, 2001
Web firm loses bid to restrain anti-spam group
January 5, 2001
Analysis: The spam overload of 2000
January 4, 2001
EarthLink antispam measure trips some users
October 30, 2000
E-mail marketers announce anti-spam standards
September 26, 2000

Firm loses bid for restraining order against anti-spam group
(Computerworld)
Two sentenced in e-mail spam scam
(IDG.net)
The spam-tastic year 2000
(PCWorld.com)
UUNet's spam problem points to larger issues
(IDG.net)
PSINet, AT&T caught serving up spam
(IDG.net)
Group aims to put itself on anti-spam diet
(The Industry Standard)
Harris sues AOL, Microsoft over spam accusation
(IDG.net)
Getting off the 'legitimate' spammers' mailing lists
(InfoWorld.com)

America Online, Inc.
Cyber Entertainment Network
Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.