TECHNOLOGY - Sept. 14, 1996

America Online Asks Court for Junk E-Mail Ban: The nation’s largest provider of online services asked a federal appeals court to lift an injunction that forbids it from blocking a Philadelphia marketing firm whose advertising e-mail has been flooding AOL subscribers’ electronic mailboxes. Dulles, Va.-based AOL said it had blocked five sites Sept. 5 serving as clearinghouses for unsolicited commercial mailings. The next day, senior U.S. District Judge Charles Weiner ordered AOL to lift the restriction on Cyber Promotions’ mailings pending a Nov. 12 trial of a lawsuit the company filed in March accusing AOL of trying to drive it out of business. AOL has asked for a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to have the injunction lifted.