Anti-Spammers Call for Boycott of New DMA Opt-Out Database -- Announce Cyber-Protest Website.

Business/High-Tech Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2000

Activists Say Direct Marketing Association's e-MPS Promotes Spamming,

Threatens Anti-spam Legislation

The Spam Recycling Center (SRC) and the Forum for Responsible and Ethical E-mail (FREE) today called for a consumer and e-business boycott of the Direct Marketing Association's e-Mail Preference Service (e-MPS), a database of opt-out e-mail addresses for use by direct e-mail marketers. The boycott was announced along with the new "cyber-protest" Mad About Spam website (http://www.MadAboutSpam.org) where netizens signatures are being collected on a cyber-petition calling for anti-spam action by the U.S. Congress.

"The DMA telling Congress that they can police the marketing industry is like the fox asking for the key to the chicken coop," said Ian Oxman, president of ChooseYourMail.com and founder of the Spam Recycling Center. "Mr. Weintzen (DMA president) has publicly stated his support of spamming and this e-MPS charade is just another step toward that goal."

The "cyber-protest" on-line petition is asking the Congress to ignore the DMA's lobbying efforts and support responsible anti-spam legislation. The protest organizers say that either using the e-MPS database for marketing purposes, registering personal e-mail addresses in the database or patronizing businesses that use the e-MPS plays into the hands of the DMA's pro-spam agenda.

"The e-MPS is a red herring whose sole purpose is to paint a veneer of legitimacy on the practice of spamming," said Mickey Chandler, president of FREE. "The DMA, as a matter of policy, is protecting spamming and the e-MPS is a part of that pro-spam effort."

The e-MPS, scheduled to go public on January 10, 2000, is designed to be a database of e-mail users who registered with the DMA not to receive unsolicited commercial e-mail. The database would then be used by marketers to purge their e-mail address lists of uninterested consumers. It is a program with no enforcement capability, no penalties for non-compliance and whose only potential value would be to companies wanting to send mass unsolicited commercial e-mail.

"If you have the permission of your customer to send them e-mails, you don't need the e-MPS. If you are a reputable company that doesn't spam, you don't need e-MPS. But if you are the DMA and you want to protect spamming as a business practice - then you need the e-MPS to fool Congress into believing you can self-regulate the marketing industry."

The Mad About Spam petition will be delivered to Congressman Gary Miller (R-CA) and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) to help them move currently pending spam legislation out of the Commerce Committee and on to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

"If the DMA had their way, all the currently pending anti-spam legislation would die in the Commerce Committee and never again see the light of day," said Oxman. "But that isn't in the best interest of the e-commerce or the on-line communities. We want netizens to come together in an effort to defeat the DMA and get meaningful action from Congress on this issue."

Both FREE and ChooseYourMail.com are sponsors of the Spam Recycling Center (http://www.spamrecycle.com) a consumer assistance website dedicated to fighting unsolicited commercial e-mail as a marketing practice.