Harris Interactive has dropped its charges against America Online Inc. after the Internet Service Provider restored Harris’ communications capabilities. After being listed on the Mail Abuse Prevention System’s (MAPS) Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) of alleged spammers, AOL had blocked Harris Interactive’s communications.
Litigation against other defendants named in the case including Microsoft’s HotMail and Quest, who have both blocked Harris communications based on the recommendation from the RBL, will continue.
“We are pleased with AOL’s action and their swift understanding of the magnitude of this issue,” Gordon Black, CEO of Harris Interactive, said in a statement. “Today marks a major first step in our effort to ensure full protection against unfair and undemocratic practices that can emerge as a result of self-regulation by organizations such as MAPS.”
In a separate action, Harris’ request for a temporary restraining order to prevent MAPS from listing it on the RBL was denied yesterday, MAPS said in a statement.
“This is an important first-round victory for us,” said MAPS spokeswoman Kelly Thompson. “The judge realized that Harris’ claim of irreparable harm to their business from being placed in the RBL wasn’t as strong as they had claimed. Harris themselves admit that they are still able to send e-mail to a large percentage of their survey base.”
Peter Popovich, director of online operations for MAPS, said that “Harris was, and is, in the RBL because we have received ongoing complaints from people who continue to receive unwanted e-mail from Harris, mail for which they had never signed up in the first place. All Harris had to do to get out of the RBL was to commit to expunging those addresses from their mailings lists, or to not use those tainted lists. That’s still all that they need to do.”
Harris Interactive, an Internet market research firm based in Rochester, NY, filed a lawsuit July 31 against the prominent ISPs that had blocked the firm from corresponding with some 2.7 million of its 6.6 million panelists, including about 600,000 who had participated in online research. The block also prevents some parties from accessing Harris Interactive’s Web sites and joining its Interactive panel. (See DIRECT Newsline Aug. 1, “ISPs Sued Over Blacklist.”)
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, seeks injunctive relief and significant monetary damages. The ISPs all subscribe to the Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC’s, RBL. MAPS, a Redwood City, CA-based Internet watchdog group, is also named in the suit.
Harris Interactive also named in the suit its competitor market research firm, Incon, and its president, Martin Roth, accusing them of “nominating” Harris Interactive for the RBL.
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