Prodigy Invites Ex-Subscribers Back Into Fold : Computers: The firm’s reinstated customers would have to follow guidelines. Fees for electronic mail, which the group protested, remain in place.
Prodigy Services Co., an electronic computer service, said Wednesday that it has offered to reinstate a group of a dozen subscribers, including several in Orange County, whose services were cut off after they protested the company’s new policy of charging fees for electronic mail.
Brian Ek, spokesman for the White Plains, N.Y.-based joint venture by International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., said Prodigy sent letters to the subscribers whose accounts were terminated in the past month, inviting them to rejoin the network if they agree to abide by certain guidelines.
However, Ek said the offer does not change the company’s intent to begin charging fees for electronic mail on Jan. 1. With Prodigy software, users of personal computers can dial the service by modem and access a wide array of electronic communications services, from airline reservations to home-shopping networks.
The announcement of the fees in September sparked protests from some of the service’s 650,000 members.
Recently, a dozen subscribers, led by Russ Singer of Huntington Beach, disclosed that Prodigy had cut off their service for allegedly harassing members with protest mail. They claimed the action amounted to censorship.
Meantime, the Texas attorney general’s office is investigating Prodigy’s advertising claims related to the electronic messaging fees, according to Ek. He said the company is cooperating with the investigation.
Prodigy’s new policy allows subscribers to send 30 free messages a month and charges 25 cents for each additional message. In October, the company raised its flat monthly service fee from $9.95 to $12.95.
In reinstating the members, Ek said Prodigy is revising its messaging guidelines in order to spell out exactly what members are allowed to do and what activities constitute harassment, which is grounds for disconnection of a member’s service.
The new guidelines do not allow members to send chain letters, contact advertisers, use automated message distribution programs to distribute mass mailings or sell products without Prodigy’s consent.
Subscribers who send more than 100 messages per day or 500 per month must provide credit card information to Prodigy.
Singer said he had not decided whether to accept Prodigy’s reinstatement offer and was disappointed with the new guidelines.
“I have no problem with guidelines against obscenity,” Singer said. “But the determination of what is chain mail and the prohibition against contacting advertisers seems to go to the issue of prior restraint of free speech.”
Penny Hay, a Brentwood resident whose service was terminated on Nov. 5, said the company’s guidelines do not allow for debate about the fairness of fees or Prodigy’s right to regulate the content of electronic messages.
“I have a lot of questions,” Hay said. “The guidelines are vague, and I find the rules on chain letters objectionable. They say a chain letter is passing information on to someone else.”
In explaining the changes in an electronic message to subscribers Tuesday, Prodigy said 3% of subscribers send 90% of the messages. Message volume is growing 20% a month and costs are escalating, the company said.
Jerry Berman, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s information technology project in Washington, said his group has contacted Prodigy to express concerns about the confidentiality of private mail, the termination of the protesters without notice, and the issue of First Amendment rights of free speech in the electronic age.
Responding to charges of censorship, Ek said the company does not read private mail and it controls access to its public bulletin boards much as a newspaper allows only limited access to its letters to the editor column.
“If these services achieve mass market status,” he said. “We’re going to be looking for private vendors such as Prodigy to provide a forum for free speech.”
