ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050092
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA
A Philadelphia marketing firm does not have a First Amendment right to flood America Online subscribers with junk e-mail, a federal judge ruled Monday.
District Judge Charles Weiner said AOL, the nation's largest provider of on-line services, can once again block e-mail advertisements from Cyber Promotions Inc. Weiner said neither the First Amendment nor the constitutions of Pennsylvania or Virginia - where AOL is based - allow Cyber to send unsolicited computer ads to AOL members.
Mail from three of five sites controlled by Cyber Promotions falls under the order. The other sites - one for software to create bulk e-mail lists and another for Internet video porn ads - are not covered.
Weiner's ruling was in response to a motion filed by AOL in the lawsuit by Cyber Promotions, which accused AOL of trying to drive it out of business.
AOL has created a new feature in its mail program that screens out junk e-mail. The feature, PreferredMail, refuses mail from a published list of sites.
Although unsolicited mail sent through the U.S. postal service is not considered illegal, the rules have yet to be defined for cyberspace. The larger services - AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve - all have policies forbidding mass junk mailings.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 35 linesby CNB