TECHNOLOGY - Sept. 21, 1996

America Online Can Resume Blocking Junk Mail: Dulles-Va.-based America Online Inc. won a federal court appeal giving it the right to resume blocking electronic junk mail sent to its subscribers by Cyber Promotions Inc., at least for now. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s preliminary injunction against the block. In a one-page ruling, the judges wrote that U.S. District Judge Charles Weiner had erred by not holding a proper fact-finding hearing before issuing the injunction. Philadelphia-based Cyber sends messages via three of the five Internet sites AOL cut off. Weiner can now hold a hearing to determine whether to reinstate the ban, pending a resolution of Cyber’s lawsuit accusing AOL of trying to drive it out of business.