AOL Plans to Charge for Spam E-Mail
AOL users may have reason to celebrate
By Josh Desmarais

The time of surety in regards to whether or not an e-mail is spam or authentic bulk mail is nigh – at least for AOL e-mail customers. AOL has announced plans that are to be implemented around the end of March, plans that aim to cut down on spam content in AOL e-mail inboxes by charging $0.0025 to ensure that a customer receives a message. AOL calls this new service “certified e-mail.” This change is seen as a mixed blessing, as while typical bulk mail senders, such as spam e-mail companies, must pay this fee for readership surety – even the innocuous, nonprofit organizations with completely different purposes behind their sending must also pay this fee. Complaints of the fee do not even begin to scratch the surface of grievances brought up by some of the organizations that feel wronged by this upcoming change.
To clarify exactly which people feel this “certified e-mail” program infringes upon both their services and their rights online, listed are a few names: Association of Cancer Online Resources, RightMarch.org and the Gun Owners Action League, among over fifty others. Many of the complaints leveled against the new service are monetary in nature – most of the organizations send out, at the very least, millions of e-mails per week, which would, under this new service, total up to costs of a few thousand dollars. However, AOL has mentioned that there will be special services given to nonprofit organizations that wish to send certified e-mails. Details on these special services given have not yet been divulged. A rather different complaint brought up – one brought up by, surprisingly enough, some of the more conservative nonprofit organizations, who see the charge for sending e-mail as an affront to their liberties online. Also understandable is the fact that the organizations are annoyed by the fact that they must now pay AOL to guarantee that AOL users receive e-mails that they willingly signed up to receive.
Not all organizations see the upcoming change as a detriment – in fact, not all find it completely detrimental, just somewhat bothersome. The American Red Cross comes up as one of the organizations that see the change as positive – as a matter of fact, they have already signed on with it. This change is more of a thorn in the side of current organizations, but it could prove more of a problem for new, smaller nonprofit groups. Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, one of the affected organizations, expresses some concern for the future: “Worst case scenario, we can probably afford the fees that AOL is levying. The real tragedy is what it will do to the little guys who are just getting started.”
All this talk of fees and levying is understandably troublesome to the average person, but rest assured – AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said that “Consumers pay nothing. Zero. Nada.” While this may seem like it makes out the changes as having no effect on the average person, keep in mind that these small costs will stretch onward into the future, for all small businesses and nonprofit organizations to come. Any future monetary concerns aside, there is a darker side of the issue – the potential for more regulation of what can and cannot be done by persons online.