Prodigy Service Cut Is Censorship, Subscribers Say

A small group of Prodigy subscribers, including several in Southern California, said Tuesday that their on-line computer service was terminated because they launched a nationwide protest of the company’s decision to charge fees for electronic mail.

The complaints erupted after Prodigy Services Co., a joint venture of International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., announced recently that it would raise monthly subscription rates 30% and begin charging for some messages.

With Prodigy software, owners of personal computers in two-dozen metropolitan regions can dial the service by modem and access a wide array of electronic communications services ranging from airline reservations to home shopping networks.

The service, which began in late 1988, is popular because of its low flat rate--the charge remains the same regardless of usage. In September, Prodigy said it would increase monthly rates from $9.95 to $12.95 beginning Jan. 1 and begin charging 25 cents for each electronic message above a monthly allotment of 30 free messages. Currently, there is no charge for messages.

Some subscribers were angered by the rate changes, particularly the no-fee electronic mail feature which was touted in Prodigy’s advertising campaign and drew many to the service. They charged that changing the cost structure now amounts to deceptive advertising.

Russ Singer, a Huntington Beach resident and coordinator of the protest, said his account and nine others were disconnected without prior notice on Oct. 30. The protesters used Prodigy’s electronic mail service to spread their revolt, and Singer said the termination of service amounts to censorship.

“They’re stifling the expression of ideas and promoting the service as a communications system for expressing ideas,” he said. “The combination of the two is bad.”

Brian Ek, a spokesman for White Plains, N.Y.-based Prodigy, denied Singer’s charges. He said the company does not disconnect anyone for belonging to a group or disagreeing with its policies.

But Ek acknowledged that a small number of subscribers were disconnected from the service because they violated the service’s policies on harassment of other members. Members agree to comply with the policy when they sign up for the service.

He said the service, which has more than 200,000 subscribers, retains the right to refuse service to anyone who fails to pay a bill or uses electronic mail for solicitation, obscenities, illegal activities or harassment.

Ek said the company decided that the subscribers crossed the line from simple advocacy to harassment in doing such things as mass mailings to thousands of members, which the service does not allow, and sending unsolicited chain letters to members to enlist their support.

“We received a lot of complaints from people because 90% of our membership is not affected by the changes,” Ek said. “We had a free discussion of this for two months in which people could state their opinions. But you cannot bombard people with thousands of these messages.”

Penny Hay, a protester from Brentwood, said the changes affect the most active users of the service. She said she did not harass anyone or disseminate any mass messages over the system, yet was cut off last week.

Singer said the protesters were not being disruptive or destructive. He also said the protesters were polite in recruiting other protesters, sending a single recruitment message and one follow-up message to each user.

“I have no problem with them eliminating obscenities or solicitations,” Singer said. “My problem is they are editing the letters on the public bulletin board for content. I challenge them to point out any harassment in our letters.”

He said the protesters were cut off shortly after informing Prodigy that they had gained support of 19,000 subscribers and had taken evidence of the widespread fee-change opposition to the service’s on-line merchants and advertisers.

“We hit a nerve,” Singer said. “Prodigy finally realized how big we are, how fast we are growing, and our arguments were obviously too compelling to their vendors and to their users for Prodigy to dismiss any longer.”

Ek declined to discuss any specific instances of harassment. He said the protests are being stirred by a small group of users who expect the service to subsidize the electronic mail regardless of rising costs.

“It costs us millions of dollars a year to provide service for these people,” he said. “We cannot continue to subsidize them at the rate the service is being used. This is not like a car where you buy it once and you own it. It is a service.”