Electronic Marketer Defies Antispam Crusade

Yesmail.com gets restraining order to stop blacklisting on antispam alert.

James Evans, IDG News Service

The Mail Abuse Prevention System had threatened to place commercial e-mail marketer Yesmail.com on its Realtime Blackhole List. The list is an antispam alert system read by thousands of Internet service providers, according to Yesmail.com.

MAPS would like to see Yesmail.com go with a double opt-in standard for a user to receive e-mail. The double opt-in standard requires the users to request the e-mail at a Web site and then confirm again that it is desired by replying to a confirmation e-mail.

Strong-Arm Tactics?

Chicago-based Yesmail.com, owned by Internet holding company CMGI, says it supports protective measures for users, but says MAPS is trying to strong-arm it into the standard.

"They are very zealous that we turn our whole business model around," says Tony Priore, Yesmail.com's senior vice president of marketing. "To totally change your business model overnight just to satisfy these guys is ludicrous. We finally had to say enough is enough."

MAPS is a nonprofit organization that seeks to "defend the Internet's e-mail system from abuse." MAPS officials could not be reached for comment, but a message was posted Tuesday on the group's Web site.

"At this time, we can only confirm that Yesmail.com has filed a lawsuit against MAPS and a temporary restraining order has been issued," the statement reads. "MAPS will comment in more detail at a later time."

Serious Consequences

Yesmail.com officials sued MAPS late last week to keep itself off the blacklist that can potentially cause as many as 20,000 ISPs to block its mail.

"Those are real consequences," Priore says. "The whole thing seems so out of proportion."

Within its suit filed in a federal court in Illinois, Yesmail.com denies that it is a spammer. Priore says the company has gone to "great pains" to protect users' privacy.

Yesmail.com markets itself as an opt-in mail provider. Users must ask for e-mail to be sent to them before it lands in their in-boxes. And Yesmail.com allows a user to remove his or her name from its mailing list at any time.

Priore also says Yesmail.com utilizes the double opt-in standard for some of its direct marketing clients. Yesmail.com officials had discussions with MAPS for several months before it decided to file suit late last week, he says.