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AOL Email Footer Lawsuit: Fairchild v. AOL, Cecchini v. AOL.
The History thus far:
On March 2006, AOL placed advertisements in the footers of all AOL member emails. Since then it sparked a petition gaining 900 signatures against the idea.
In May 2008, AOL notified a limited number of subscribers by allowing the option to remove the advertising footers at AOL Keyword (http://footer.aol.com). It is amazing even to this day, I was never notified of this keyword.
Around October 2008, AOL was hit by a lawsuit. The case, Cecchini v. AOL LLC, stated, “AOL attached advertisements to over 100 million emails without the subscribers’ permission.”
Frank Cecchini believes, an AOL customer paying $25.90 a month should not see any form of advertisements placed within their email. I pretty much agree, it is understandable to place advertisements inside free email accounts, but I don’t think it is fair to paying AOL customers. I feel paying customers shouldn’t see advertisements on AOL websites, but I digress.
Proposed Settlement
An email from a related case, Fairchild v. AOL was released this week. Fairchild et. al v. AOL started around May 2009, and has since been placed within Cecchini v. AOL. It appears since August 24th, 2009, the lawsuit has moved to the proposed settlement phase. Here the courts will decide if AOL should pay over $250,000 for legal costs and fees, in addition to $103,000 it must pay to charity, among other things.
AOL’s Proposed Requirements
According to the email, AOL is required to notify it’s members about AOL Keyword Footer (http://footer.aol.com). They must also inform current and new members (upon registering for an AOL account) the option to remove the advertisements. This notification will continue every six months for two years.
User Response
Well I must admit, there isn’t much buzz about this subject but people have been forwarding this email around. I’ll wait until a few more days to get a response. So far I see it has been pretty negative. I think paying AOL members are bummed that they won’t get any share of the money. I think sending a portion of the money to charity is a nice touch, but it would be nice to get something back… (or does this make me sound greedy?)
[via joemanna and court house news and Cecchini and Bronster]
OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPOSED SETTLEMENT If You Are Currently an AOL Member Your Rights May Be Affected by a Proposed Class Action Settlement. • The Proposed Settlement is on behalf of all current AOL Members. It resolves claims regarding advertising or promotional “footers” that may have been appended to the bottom of your e-mails by AOL. • The Proposed Settlement provides that all current AOL Members will immediately be provided notice of the footers and their ability to discontinue the footers via AOL Keyword: Footer and http://footer.aol.com, and that, if AOL continues to append footers to its Members’ e-mails, such notice will be provided both to all new customers upon their registration of an AOL account and to all current AOL Members on a regular, periodic basis (every six months for two years) • The Proposed Settlement provides that AOL shall make donations to several different charities totaling $103,000. • If you do nothing and this Proposed Settlement is approved by the Court you will be part of the Settlement Class and bound by the terms of the Settlement. • The Court still has to decide whether to approve the Proposed Settlement. Settlement Class Members will receive the benefits of the Settlement after the Court approves the Settlement. PLEASE DO NOT CALL OR WRITE DIRECTLY TO THE COURT. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS ARE AFFECTED WHETHER OR NOT YOU ACT. PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY. YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES: You May Due Date 1. Do Nothing (see questions #7 and 15) This space intentionally left blank or 2. Exclude Yourself (see questions #11 – 13) Postmarked by November 20, 2009 or 3. Object to the Settlement (see question #14) Filed and Received by December 7, 2009 or 4. Appear in the Lawsuit (see question #14) Filed and Received by December 7, 2009 1. WHO SHOULD READ THIS NOTICE? If you are presently an AOL customer you should read this notice. Your legal rights are affected by the proposed Settlement of a class action lawsuit, Fairchild et al v. AOL, Case No. CV09-03568 CAS (PLAx), which is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. This Notice explains: What this Lawsuit is about; Who is included in the Settlement; How the Settlement will benefit you; How to get the benefits of the Settlement; and What your legal rights are. If you have any questions regarding this Notice, please send an e-mail to footerlitigat...@corp.aol.com, which will be shared with Settlement Class Counsel. If you send an e-mail, please be sure to include the name of the lawsuit (Fairchild v. AOL) in the Subject Line. However, please read the entire Notice before writing. A copy of this Notice is also available online at http://legal.web.aol.com/Footersettlement.pdf. PLEASE DO NOT CALL OR WRITE DIRECTLY TO THE COURT OR THE CLERK’S OFFICE. 2. WHAT IS THIS LAWSUIT ABOUT? This Lawsuit was brought by Plaintiffs Dawn Fairchild, Robert Nachshin, Brian Geers and Larry Gerrard against Defendant AOL LLC. Plaintiffs allege that (1) the failure to inform them that AOL would insert e-mail footers in their sent e-mails and (2) the insertion of such footers, violate the law. AOL denies Plaintiffs’ allegations and maintains that it acted in accordance with all laws and regulations. 3. WHO REPRESENTS ME IN THIS CASE? The Court has appointed the following attorneys in the Fairchild Action to act as Settlement Class Counsel: Glenn Nunes The Nunes Law Group 101 California St. Suite 2450 San Francisco, CA (415) 946-8894 Christopher J. Hamner Hamner Law Offices 15760 Ventura Blvd Ste 860 Encino, CA 91436 (818) 386-0444 Brian Kabateck, Esq. Richard Kellner, Esq. Kabateck Brown Kellner LLP 644 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 217-5000 4. WHY IS THERE A SETTLEMENT? The Court has not decided who is right or wrong in this lawsuit. Instead, the Settlement Class Representatives and AOL agreed to a Settlement, which was preliminarily approved by the Court on August 25, 2009. As a result of the Settlement, all parties avoid the costs of further litigation and risks of a trial and Settlement Class members may obtain the benefits of the Settlement. The Settlement Class Representatives believe that the case has merit and that the evidence supports their claims. The Settlement Class representatives determined that the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class. The Settlement will permit Plaintiffs and the Settlement Class Members to receive full and complete disclosure of AOL’s practice of appending e-mail footers and the ability simply and easily to discontinue these footers, without the time, risk and expense of litigation. AOL has also agreed to contribute significant sums to 7 charities as part of this settlement. AOL does not believe that Plaintiffs’ claims have factual or legal merit. However, AOL desires to avoid unnecessary litigation costs while also ensuring that it has taken adequate steps to ensure that consumers are fully aware of the footers and their ability to discontinue them. In an effort to resolve this matter, the parties engaged The Hon. Dickran Tevrezian,(Ret.) U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California, to mediate a resolution. The parties were thereby able to negotiate a settlement. 5. HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM PART OF THE SETTLEMENT? If you are a current AOL member and are not an employee of AOL, their counsel, or an immediate family member of an employee or their counsel you are in the class and are part of this settlement. 6. WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE AND HOW WILL I RECEIVE THE BENEFITS? The Settlement provides that all current AOL Members will be provided e-mail notice of the footers and their ability to discontinue the footers via AOL Keyword: Footer and http://footer.aol.com, and that, if AOL continues to append footers to its Members’ e-mails, such notice will be provided both to all new customers upon their registration of an AOL account and to all current AOL Members on a regular, periodic basis (every six months for two years).
24 Comments to “AOL Email Footer Lawsuit: Fairchild v. AOL, Cecchini v. AOL.”
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As of 9/6/09 the footer removal site doesn’t work. Have two macs and PC and used both AOL and other’s browsers and they all say I have disabled the footers but they are still there.
Spent an hour with live help and finally live helper tried to use the site to activate footers where he was working and it would not activate the footers.
Slimy.
Yes, it is true. If you read it it states that the charities get $103,000 and the lawyers get 250,000. The way you object is to write to the bla, bla, bla,. Isn’t this nice and convient? If you do nothing, you agree to this. Huh… I say, take th time and write to the court and deffend AOL. they are a good isp. Who cares if they run a footer on credit reports and the like. The law suit is just so fat lawyers can get fatter. ENOUGH..
Bill
@David: Sorry to hear that. I really can’t do much to fix a feature ran by AOL.
@BIll: I’m surprised to hear that you’d defend AOL.Around the time the first case went up (Cecchini), AOL customers paid 25.90 a month. Compared to the cost now, you can see why we’re bummed out.
@everyone: Post has been updated with minor new details.
Are you kidding me? What type of asshole losers would waste their time. I bet all of these ugly wimpy assholes were picked on as kids now this is their way of getting back at the world. Get a life! No wonder this world is going to shit!
i’m surprised anybody would defend Aol, our e-mail is email we r sending to family friends, businesses etc… it is personal and private and shouldnt be used for other advertisers, AOL is settling for donating to charity because of taxes not because they want to satyisfy their members. i would only want to keep my but out of court if i knew i was guilty, why does AOL want to settle, AOL wrote this email on the settlement and if you read it it says if u do nothing you agree with the settlement AOL knows that half of the world is not going to go through the hassle to respond to the court on their objection they know people are going to do nothing well doing nothing is almost like a petition agreeing to the settlement, so we all need to take the time to object, u dont have to go to court in person you can mail a letter of objection. look for fairchild v aol and you can get all the information u need.
I dont care what anyone says. This was to make the attorneys a bunch of money. its great to see money going to a charity, but now some piece of crap attorneys just made a ton of money. Frivolous lawsuits are screwing up this country. Attorneys are nothing but assholes!
I used to pay for aol, then I signed up for free aol. Either way, I don’t care if they stick an advertisement in the footer. As Bill said, they are a good isp. I certainly wouldn’t want any settlement money. Glad some of it goes to charity, but sucks that the lawyers get a bunch of money because people find something stupid to complain about. It’s aol’s service, if you don’t like it, get a different service.
I’m agree……..
the only problem i had with the adverts was receiving emails from our outside sales rep but it was said by our IT guy that it was because there was no text in the email itself. the subject line was labeled but nothing in the body. but i do agree as a paying customer that our emails are private. and i should not have to see or advertise for someone else for free. that’s crazy.
ONLY MY OPINION
So…a self-centered subscriber decided to start a lawsuit because a company added an advertisement (which in no way affected the rest of the content) at the end of their e-mails.
Why? Because you pay for the service and shouldn’t see ads.
That makes sense, but where do you think AOL is going to get the money to pay for the lawsuit if they lose?
More advertising, and a rate increase for subscribers.
Way to go, crybabies!
What I would like to see dissappear are the adverts at the bottom of my browser — which takes up work space. Also, I find some of the ads offensive and I am not interested in paying to see this kind of crap. Some folks above are saying they pay $25 a month for AOL. I am paying $54/$55 a month — what am I doing wrong?
How does a charity apply for inclusion in the donation?
If you are paying for a service and a change is made to that service without either notification prior to the change or a chance to opt out of the service prior to the change, I feel that that is illegal. I did not have ads on my emails when I signed up and received no notice that I would start seeing that service. This is just one more thing AOL has done to alienate users. Prior to this they deleted everyone’s FTP account. I hosted a website through my FTP account and was quite surprised to see that it was no longer present and I could not access the files. When I called support they told me i would not be able to retrieve the data. As you can see AOL is starting to lose customer focus and relying more heavily on profit focus at the expense of service.
Who cares about ads. We see ads even when were doing. Pricate business in the bathroom. We see ads om PAID S (?. How many of us have frown accostom to ignoring them. )Ou think you got the angle all figured out don’t you you jerk. This law suit is about nothing more than someone getting paid ant the FREE ADVERTISEMENT of their names on evert one elses e-mail
Sorry. That’s on paid 4 tv, private bathroom business.(Such as those little WHITE CLOUDS on tp. you paid for the tp right?! why don’t we sue them while weere at it) I couldn’t see what I was typing. But you know I’m right.
ZED…STFU…AN GO SLEEP IT OFF YOU DRUNK….HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUR BABBLING YOU MORON….
OOOP’S….MY APOLIGIES TO ZED…I THOUGHT THIS WAS ANOTHER BLOG…THE BEBO PROFILE ONE…AN I COULDNT FIGURE OUT WHAT HE WAS SAYING IN RELATION TO BEBO PROFILES…NOW I SEE ITS THE LAWSUIT ONE…..SORRY ZED….;0(
thats ok (Anonymous) we all make mistakes. such as. sueing someone over this bs.
TO ZEB….I WAS ON ANOTHER BLOG…THE ONE WITH THE NEW BEBO PROFILES….AN EVERYONE IS UPSET ABOUT THE NEW PROFILES…SUCH AS ME…I SAW YOUR RECENT COMMENTS….(ABOVE AND TO THE LEFT ON TOP) I CLICKED ON YOUR COMENTS TO READ….AND I WAS UPSET AND MAD ABOUT THE PROFILES AN I READ YOUR COMMENTS AN IT DIDNT MAKE ANY SENSE ABOUT THE PROFILES…I DIDNT REALIZE I WAS TAKEN TO ANOTHER BLOG ABOUT THE LAWSUIT…..K…NOW IT MAKES SENSE…I JUMPED THE GUN AN GOOFED…MY APOLIGIES SIR….
Ireally dont know what this is all about.how is this effecting my email.and why sould i care.does it affect,what i sendor does it afect, people send me email.i dont want to b invovel with any of this court .so pleaseleave me out of it.i havent had any trouble with aol.
whats a footer…
i dont know whats a footer ….and why do i need to work on it ???
I have paid as well as free e-mail services from AOL but there are no footers, neither have there ever been any at the bottom of my e-mails. I am actually a bit surprised by all of this. Why a lawsuit? Couldn’t they just send an e-mail explaining their complaint and asking for these footers to be removed? Typical for the United States, sue them for what they’ve got.
I don’t know about anybody else but I have been through 3 or 4 maybe more class actions lawsuits and believe me i never got anything from them and I won’t get anything out of it thistime. it is time for me to get greedy, the lawyers don’t hide their greediness, i think it is our money that they got rich on I may be wrong but I believe it that way.