C I Host Awarded Temporary Restraining Order Against America Online (AOL) for Blocking C I Host's IP Addresses

BEDFORD, Texas, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- C I Host, one of the world leaders in Web hosting and Internet solutions, was awarded a temporary restraining order against America Online to keep it from illegally blocking all e-mail from C I Host's IP addresses to AOL subscribers. Due to AOL's refusal to comply with the order, C I Host is seeking an Order of Contempt against AOL to force them to follow the court's order to remove the blocks on C I Host IP addresses.

AOL began the e-mail block on or around August 12, 2003.
C I Host went before Judge Bonnie Sudderth in Tarrant County's 352nd District Court in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, August 21, to argue for the temporary restraining order.

Although AOL was served the restraining order on Friday morning, Aug. 22nd. As of 5:30 p.m. CST, they have not complied with Judge Sudderth's order. Through the temporary restraining order, the judge ordered AOL to:

-- Stop blocking e-mail to AOL subscribers from C I Host IP addresses

-- Stop directly or indirectly communicating, contacting, or soliciting any C I Host customers

-- Refrain from publishing any information relating to or referring to
C I Host

Judge Sudderth set a hearing on permanent action regarding the matter in her court for September 12, 2003 at 8:30 a.m.
"What they have done is not only wrong, but it is in every sense
censorship on their part," said Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host. "AOL's action has been very damaging to our business and that of our clients."

Faulkner said the company is investigating the possibility of class action litigation against AOL on behalf of the company and its over 200,000 clients. The company also intends to seek monetary damages against AOL. AOL accused C I Host of allowing its clients to spam and gave that as its reason for blocking the IP addresses from C I Host e-mail servers.

"C I Host is very aggressive about attacking the spam issue," Faulkner said. "C I Host does not spam, and we don't tolerate spamming by our clients," said Faulkner. "In fact, we were one of the first Web hosting companies to install spam filters that our clients cannot turn off. This week alone our spam filters blocked over 16 million spam e-mails.

"C I Host also maintains a full-time abuse department with staff who are dedicated to protecting the C I Host network from hackers and spammers. Anyone attempting to spam is warned and then shut down if they do not comply with the warning," said Faulkner. All incoming e-mails to C I Host and its customers are filtered through SpamCop and other spam blacklists to keep customers from receiving spam.

C I Host also requires all customers to sign and comply with a strict Service Level Agreement that forbids them from sending out spam. Among the penalties for violating the agreement, include termination of the client's account and/or monetary fines.

About C I Host
C I Host (http://www.cihost.com), is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 190,000 individual consumers and businesses in 182 countries worldwide.

C I Host creates business-class Web hosting solutions for the small- and medium-enterprise (SME) market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry. C I Host is accredited by ICANN to register domain names.

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