Payback Time
FINALLY-someone has had the nerve to stand up to MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC).
Yesmail filed an action against the Internet watchdog, and it apparently has won – the two sides announced that the litigation was on hold. (See our cover story, “Cease-fire.”)
We’re glad that MAPS is being reasonable, but the facts remain what they were when Yesmail filed the action – that MAPS tried to bully Yesmail, and Yesmail refused to cave in.
Unfortunately, the issue between them – whether Yesmail’s opt-in verification procedures amounted to a double opt-in – may not be the one that gets your firm listed on the Real-time Blackhole List (RBL). MAPS isn’t going away.
We got a taste of how passionate people are on the subject when we ran our initial story about the Yesmail case on DIRECT Newsline. Our Web site (www.directmag.com) received tens of thousands of additional hits that weekend, and we also got several e-mails from irate readers:
“I’m hoping Yesmail gets nailed to the wall on this, and that you do a good job covering the story.”
“No judge will be telling ME that I have to allow their junk e-mail into my mailbox.”
“It has nothing to do with free speech. Free speech does not mean that people can trespass on your property, trying to sell you goods or services.”
Did you ever get the feeling that the inmates were in charge of the asylum?
As Patty Odell has documented, Internet service providers that rely on the MAPS RBL can shut down sites, effectively putting companies out of business. That’s conceding too much power to the zealots at MAPS.
MAPS acts as judge, jury and executioner. All it takes is a complaint. (It could be from your competitor.) Defendants had a better chance during the Salem witchcraft trials.
This controversy isn’t only about free speech; it’s also about restraint of trade. Even in cases where unsolicited e-mail has been received, the punishment hardly fits the crime.
Outbound telemarketing can also be an annoying medium. But nobody has suggested that telemarketers be denied use of the telecommunications system.
Ditto paper direct mail. Our mailboxes are cluttered, but we don’t believe that mailers should have their mail blocked by the U.S. Postal Service.
Yesmail fought before it was listed. We’d like to see some upstanding company that’s already been included on the RBL sue MAPS for libel. And teach MAPS another lesson.
