Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Government to Mediate AOL e-Mail 'Tax' Uproar?

Via Red Herring.

The showdown between America Online and a surprisingly disparate partnership of consumer and political rights groups over proposed pay-to-send email services will be arbitrated eventually by the U.S. government, along with another pending Net neutrality battle.

A coalition of 50 groups that run the gamut from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Gun Owners of America to the Association of Cancer Online Resources and the Humane Society failed in its first public attempt to shake AOL’s resolve to charge extra for a premium email service.

An AOL spokesperson called the group a coalition of “organizations that exist to protest and perform political fundraising online,” and suggested that they had picked the wrong target in AOL.

At a press conference on Monday, coalition leaders said they did not include Yahoo in their protest because Yahoo, which has also announced plans to offer fee-based email, is not as determined to push ahead with its plans.

posted by Fergie @ 3/01/2006 10:47:00 AM