Two California men convinced that mass distribution of CDs is poisoning the earth, are gaining ground in their goal to collect 1 million AOL CDs and return them to the Internet service provider’s doorstep.
John Lieberman and Jim McKenna have received 80,000 CDs from people around the world—up from 13,000 in February--offering trial subscriptions to AOL’s Internet services and the services of its subsidiaries Netscape and Compuserve. The two also say that the majority of the CDs are unwanted.
"We represent all who are sick of receiving unwanted AOL CDs," a statement at the Web site http://www.nomoreaolcds.com reads. "By sending us your unwanted AOL, Netscape, or CompuServe CDs, you can help us make a statement. Once we have 1 million collected, we will make our quest across America to give them all back to their rightful owner, AOL and say "stop doing this".
The men are IT specialists who spent $250 earlier this year to get the plan off the ground--$200 to develop and register the Web site and $50 for rolls of clothesline on which to string the incoming CDs. (DIRECT Magazine, March 1, 2002)
AOL does not release numbers, but it estimated about five years ago that when stacked up, all the CDs it had mailed to date would top the height of Chicago’s Sears Tower. Some estimates put the number of CDs sent annually at 300 million.
