AOL Declares Victory in Spam Settlement

Internet service provider AOL declared victory in a lawsuit it settled against a Florida operator of adult Web sites that allegedly sent millions of unsolicited pornographic e-mails to its members. The AOL Time Warner Inc. unit filed suit in December 2000 against Florida-based Cyber Entertainment Network, officially known as Netvision Audiotext Inc., alleging it paid Web site managers to send the unsolicited advertising known as “spam” to AOL members.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. AOL, the world’s largest Internet service provider, had sought $10 for each unsolicited bulk e-mail message transmitted.

AOL said the settlement called for it to get a substantial monetary payment and an injunction calling for Netvision and its Webmaster affiliates to cease spamming AOL’s 34 million worldwide members. An attorney for Cyber Entertainment Network would say only that “the matter has been settled.”