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We've captured this press release for posterity's sake. IBN and the Virtual Magistrate Project have absolutely no relationship with each other. The press release is simply reference material for an article in 1st Steps: Marketing and Design Daily dated 5-22-96


THE VIRTUAL MAGISTRATE PROJECT
http://vmag.law.vill.edu:8080

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, May 21, 1996
For Immediate Release

Virtual Magistrate Issues Its First Decision

Recommends that AOL Remove a Subscriber Message
Offering Millions of Email Addresses For Sale

The Virtual Magistrate Project today released its first decision. The case involved a disputed message posted on America Online (AOL) by Email America. The decision recommended that the message offering the sale of email addresses be removed by AOL because it violated the AOL service agreement as well as Internet customs.

The Virtual Magistrate Project is an Internet-based arbitration service that assists in the rapid, initial resolution of computer network disputes. The Project opened for business in March 1996. The basic decision offered by the Virtual Magistrate is whether a network message, file, or posting and should be taken down or left in view.

The case name is "Tierney and Email America", VM Docket No. 96-0001 (08 May 1996). The date of the decision is May 20, 1996. The full text and related materials and correspondence are available for public inspection through the Virtual Magistrate Home Page at <http://vmag.law.vill.edu:8080>. The complainant in the case is James Tierney who is a member of America Online and is affiliated with the Virtual Magistrate Project as a advisor on consumer fraud issues. Tierney is also a former Attorney General for the State of Maine. His complaint was directed against Email America, which had posted a message on AOL offering to sell lists of as many as twenty million email addresses. The complaint alleged that Email America's message was an invasion of privacy, against sound public policy, and deceptive. Tierney characterized Email America's offering as promoting spamming or junk e-mail. These terms describe indiscriminate, bulk, direct mail marketing via email.

America Online voluntarily participated in the case. The AOL submission pointed out that its terms of service agreement permits the removal of messages that are harmful or offensive or otherwise in violation of AOL rules. AOL also stated that it does not encourage indiscriminate, unsolicited bulk mail on its system. AOL considers such mailings inconsistent with Internet custom and practice, an impediment to service, and potentially deleterious to its system. Unsolicited bulk mail has also been the subject of numerous complaints from AOL subscribers.

The Virtual Magistrate ruled that the determination of what constitute harmful or offensive activity can take into account the limitations of the AOL system, Internet custom and practice, and customer complaints. The Magistrate determined that removal or blocking of the message in question would be permissible under the AOL Terms of Service Agreement and that AOL should remove the message from its system.

The case was decided by N. M. Norton, Jr., a partner with the law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Norton was recently a member of the U.S. National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. He is one of eight individuals selected so far to serve as Virtual Magistrates.

The Virtual Magistrate Project is an experimental service developed by the Cyberspace Law Institute, and funded by the National Center for Automated Information Research. Operational elements of the Project are provided by the American Arbitration Association and the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy. Documents explaining the rules, procedures, and purpose of the Project are available on the Virtual Magistrate Home Page.

Virtual Magistrate Executive Director Robert Gellman said "The Virtual Magistrate Project is off to a good start with this decision. We expect the Project to demonstrate how computer networks can police themselves. The decision supports the right of system operators to establish appropriate rules governing their services. We were disappointed that Email America did not respond to repeated requests to participate in this case. But since there was an active complaint and a participating system operator, we proceeded with the case."

For additional information, contact:

-30-


April 20, 1996
This classic piece deserved its own page in the archives. It's about Types of Links


Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers. It should make the historical material somewhat easier to get through.


Try Freeloader


Check out the Archives....43 Weekly Back issues including:

  • July 13 1996 Including:
    • Multimedia Web
    • Selling Ads
    • An SIG Pidgin
    • News From The Front
    • Absolut-ly Fabulous
    • Tripod Redux
    • Jobs For Web Designers
  • July 06 1996 Including:
    • Makeovers R Us
    • JAvaScript Tip Of the Week
    • Microsoft Viruses
    • Sega Surfing
    • Jobs For Web Designers
    • Informant
    • IDML
  • June 22 1996 Including:
    • Advertising Effectiveness Part 2
    • Email Risks: Short Case Study
    • Leave 'Em Laughing
    • Translation Pages
    • Design and Graphics Tidbits
    • Advertising Law
  • June 15 1996 Including:
    • Ostriches On Line
    • Media Daily
    • NBNSOFT Content Awards
    • Lots of Juicy Tidbits
    • Knowing When to Quit
    • About Media Placement Agencies
  • June 08 1996 Including:
    • TRADEWINDS
    • Sponsored Site of the Day
    • Internet Link Exchange
    • WebServer Magazine
    • Net History from Alta Vista
    • Business.net
  • June 01 1996 Including:
    • Positioning
    • Filtering Ads
    • Balancing Technology and Marketing
    • Elements of Ad Effectiveness
    • Useful Microsoft Tools
    • Graphics / Tufte
  • May 25 1996 Including:
    • Suck
    • Web Informant
    • Fighting The Last War
    • Net Commerce Bureau
    • Web Review Revisited
    • Initial Promotion Tools
  • May 18 1996 Including:
    • How Not To Do It
    • Link Trakker
    • Television Industry
    • Guidelines for Promotional Email
    • Going Out With Dignity
    • Initial Promotion
  • May 11 1996
    • Roverbot
    • Tropical Jim's
    • Who's Marketing Online Reborn
    • StoogeNet
    • Dr HTML
  • May 04 1996
    • Yahoo's People Search
    • Hyperlinks are Institutionalized Referrals
    • The David Siegel Project
    • Junk Email Suit
    • Editor and Publisher Interactive
  • Apr 27 1996
    • How Not To Do It: Buf Puf
    • Email Courtesies
    • 2Ask
    • MRML (Mind Reading Markup Language
    • Do You Own Your Domain Name
  • Apr 20 1996
    • Types of Links
    • Solid Oak and Cybersitter
    • Search Engine Tutorial
    • Tripod
    • Salon
    • Webcatcher
    • WWWomen

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    All material on this site is © 1995, 1996 by IBN (The Internet Business Network), Mill Valley, CA 94941