Internet Group Won’t Post AOL Addresses

An Internet commerce group dropped its plans to post the e-mail addresses of 5 million America Online members next week after receiving “thousands” of messages from AOL members asking it not to follow through with the threat. The Chino-based National Organization of Internet Commerce received numerous messages from members of the world’s largest online service saying they were concerned that “anyone in the world” could download their e-mail addresses off the NOIC’s Web page and use them to send pornography to their children. The 3-month-old NOIC says its member companies, which may number no more than two, would like to send unsolicited e-mail messages--commonly referred to as spam--to AOL’s 10 million members as a cheap way to promote their services. The NOIC threatened earlier this week to post the e-mail addresses of 1 million AOL customers on its Web site Thursday after AOL refused to negotiate with the group over access to its customer base. It upped the ante to 5 million addresses after AOL threatened to sue if it followed through with its plan.