eMarketersAmerica.org Fights for Free Speech in the Nation's Capital Against Anti-Spammers Who Threaten Legitimate e-Mail Marketing Companies PR Newswire -- April 30, 2003 U.S. Economy Will Suffer if Anti-Spammers Get Their Way and Cripple the Billion Dollar e-Mail Marketing Business, Says Trade Organization WASHINGTON, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Everyone hates spam ... and that includes e-mail marketers. However, groups that call themselves anti-spammers are trying to eradicate all e-mailers by blacklisting even legitimate companies. eMarketersAmerica.org is a trade organization representing legitimate permission-based e-mail marketers on the Internet who are fighting back. This month, they surprised the industry by filing a lawsuit against the anti-spammers, many of which operate in Europe. "Our organization wants to clean up and regulate the e-mail marketing industry because spam only gives permission-based e-mail a bad name. But the anti-spammers have a mob mentality and want to get rid of both the innocent and guilty," said Mark E. Felstein, Director and Chief Counsel, in remarks delivered today at an anti-spam conference at the Federal Trade Commission. "The members of this organization are permission-based e-mail marketers who have been blacklisted, harassed and threatened by anti-spammers. Why do anti- spammers want to get rid of legitimate business? That's the real question." Felstein said his organization will conduct a national public information campaign to educate consumers that not all commercial messages on the Internet are the same as the unsolicited emails known as spam. eMarketersAmerica.org represents permission-based emailers who obtain permission from recipients before emailing commercial messages on behalf of legitimate companies, including many Fortune 500 companies, for whom Internet marketing represents over a billion dollars in revenue. eMarketersAmerica.org hopes to work with lawmakers this year on legislation to regulate the industry. Since the suit was filed April 14th, Mark E. Felstein has received threatening phone calls, corruption of his e- mail addresses and when his organization simply registered and parked its domain with a well-known register, it was wrongly blacklisted and immediately terminated by anti-spammers. "It's easy for these anti-spammers to label and blacklist companies as spammers, even if it means destroying a legitimate business. Not only is this wrong, but what's next ... direct mail, magazine and TV advertisements, or basically anything that these anti-spammers don't like for one reason or another. Or, maybe the real reason is that these anti-spammers have a financial stake in these matters," said Felstein. CONTACT: Glen Calder, +1-561-750-9800, ext. 16, or GCalder@transmediagroup.com