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By PETER H..LEWIS
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An Arizona lawyer had an entrepreneurial idea: advertise his services over the Internet, the global web of computer networks.
He may have reached millions of people. But thousands of them were outraged that he had violated the unwritten rules of the electronic global community by sending unsolicited commercial messages. He has been bombarded by thousands of scathing messages — known as being "flamed" in the argot of cyberspace.
Outraged network users have posted real estate records showing his home address, vaguely suggesting retaliation. And he has been cut off from the service he used to send his messages and been banished to network purgatory.
Newcomers vs. Old-Timers
The incident underscores the growing conflict
between newcomers who want to exploit the commercial potential of the
Internet, and the original Internet community, which arose as a Government
and academic network and has long shunned the more commercial nature of such
popular public services as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online.
It also raises new questions about advertising in the electronic
age, when solicitations for business can be sent over computer networks to
millions of readers at the touch of a button.
The lawyer, Laurence A. Canter of Phoenix, may be scorched, but is
apparently unrepentant. Along with the flames, he said yesterday, came
numerous queries from potential clients.
"We will definitely advertise on the Internet again," Mr. Canter
said, sounding cheerful despite the virtual flogging he has received.
"It appears to be a very profitable venture and a very viable vehicle for
advertising a variety of things. I'm sure other businesses will be
advertising on the network in the very near future."
Not if Jeff Wheelhouse can help it. "They will not be back on
our system." vowed Mr. Wheelhouse, system administrator for Internet
Direct Inc., the network service company in Phoenix that Mr. Canter used
last week to send his message. Mr. Wheelhouse said the advertisement
had drawn some 30,000 replies before Internet Direct pulled the plug on Mr.
Canter a few days later.
Mr. Wheelhouse said he would not be deterred by Mr. Canter's threat
to sue Internet Direct for $250,000 unless he is reconnected.
"They crashed out computer about 15 times — that's when we stopped
counting — because of the volume of incoming complaints," Mr.
Wheelhouse said. "I lost an entire week dealing with this."
Advertisements are beginning to appear all around the network,
usually followed swiftly by messages of outrage and dismay from longtime
denizens of cyberspace.
Laurence A. Canter, a lawyer in Phoenix, and his wife, Martha S. Siegel, outraged thousands when they sent an unsolicited commercial message over the Internet, the global web of computer networks.