After ruffling feathers last week by redirecting traffic of a public domain look-up service to its corporate Web site, Network Solutions has done it again.
The company that handles registration in the .com, .org, and .net domains irked scores of Web admins on Monday by sending unsolicited email to domain-name holders listed in its massive database.
The message described changes in the Network Solutions Web site. "We encourage you to visit us ... and learn about more ways to maximize your presence on the Internet!" it read in part. To some, it reeks of spam.
"A lot of people got this email and they're pissed-off about it," said John Mozena, co-founder and vice president of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email.
"They're acting as though people want to get their messages, which is ugly."
The message included several paragraphs describing the company's services and programs, which Mozena said qualified it as spam.
The email sparked a storm of protest on Usenet. Some of the busiest threads on administrators' news lists are about the Network Solutions mailing, Mozena said.
Adding insult to injury, Mozena said there is no way to get off Network Solutions' mailing lists. All domain name holders must list contact information, including email, in the "whois" database. Network Solutions executives have said the database is proprietary -- a claim disputed by Net admins.
"What concerns people about this is they are sending this email to a captive audience," said Mozena, who also said that there is no way to tell how many domain-name holders received the mail.
It doesn't appear to have gone out to all owners of domain names, although the header of the message does contain the word "bulk."
"Apparently this is something folks have seen before," said Ray Everett-Church, an Internet consultant and attorney with Haley, Bader, and Potts of Arlington, Virginia.
"Network Solutions has a checkered past about sending out -- shall we say -- questionable emails to administrative contacts."
Everett-Church said some of Network Solutions emails are about technical or administrative matters. But some contain marketing information that he said amounts to spam.
"I think it meets most people's definition of spam," he said. "It seems to me they are using the "whois" database for their own marketing purposes. It's not what this system was intended to be used for."
Network Solutions last week sparked controversy when it redirected traffic from the Internet Network Information Center site to its own Web site.
"Sending out a customer note or advisory to notify changes in the Web site hardly constitutes spam," said Christopher Clough, a Network Solutions spokesman.
"We simply wanted to inform customers about these changes. We weren't selling anything. We weren't offering anything."
