King Of Spam Abdicates

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April 13, 1998 (12:00 AM EDT)

By John Borland,

E-mail marketer Sanford Wallace said Monday that he will abandon his plans to make a "spam-friendly" backbone, and will retire from the bulk e-mail business altogether.

After years of fighting with online activists, Wallace said he would move on to "lower-profile" ventures that had nothing to do with the Internet. "I've gotten tired," Wallace said. "It's over, 100 percent."

Wallace has been backing away from his once-flamboyant advocacy of e-mail marketing for several months. His Cyber Promotions company was kicked offline for the last time in October, and since then, he has struggled to find a way back online.

Since the beginning of this year, he offered olive branches to the anti-spamming community, saying his former business model was intrusive and harmful to the Internet. At the same time, he has promised to start up what he termed a "spambone," a backbone ISP that would send advertisements only to ISPs that agreed to receive them.

Wallace's slow fade to black is a significant victory for online anti-spam forces, who had long put the Philadelphia marketer near the top of their enemies lists. But the feud between the former "King of Spam" ended on a suprisingly cordial note in the unofficial online headquarters for anti-spam activists, the net.admin.net-abuse.email Usenet newsgroup.

"I have a new respect for many of the regulars here," Wallace posted in a final note of apology and retreat on Saturday. "It is now clear to me that most of you are really here to stop spam -- not just for the thrill ride."

For the past week, a group of anti-spam activists had been negotiating with Wallace for his support of Rep. Chris Smith's (R-N.J.) Netizens Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would let consumers file a $500 lawsuit for each piece of unsolicited commercial e-mail received.

In return, Wallace wanted 10 of the most prominent anti-spam activist to publicly support the business model of his business venture with Quantum Communications' Walt Rines. The pair's Global Technology Marketing Inc. (GTMI), would operate under an "opt-in" system, sending marketing materials only to ISPs that agreed to receive it, Wallace had said. The venture's plan had been to attract service providers by paying them an incentive fee to receive the e-mail.

A handful of the prominent activists on the newsgroup had agreed that GTMI's model could work, and Wallace said more had e-mailed him privately. Others bitterly protested the idea of negotiating with "the devil," however, and Wallace said he was not ready to face their opposition.

"My jumping leg is just too tired," he said. He had also lost the support of some former allies after talking to the spam activists. There were even some people in the spam business that were angry because "they kind of felt I had stabbed them in the back," he added.

Wallace's retreat was marked by words of conciliation even from some of his most bitter former enemies.

"Believe it or not, everyone, I too have a new respect for Sanford Wallace. He was willing to let me vent my anger, apologized in private for all of the wrongs, and listened with absolute and unreserved attention while I suggested ways to end the war," wrote Jim Nitchals, a programmer and freelance writer who served as mediator in the "truce" negotiations with Wallace. "Let's all be graceful in accepting the unconditional surrender here, and move on."

Wallace said the GTMI venture, which has signed a five-year contract with GetNet for network access, would likely continue under Rines leadership. Rines could not be reached for confirmation by publishing deadline.

Wallace himself will return to "lower-profile" marketing ventures, such as promoting restaurants in the Philadelphia area, he said. "We are not going to pursue any further Internet ventures at this point."