You're not gonna believe this one! Be Careful

So, I have a friend I wanted to send over to PDc. No problem, right? WRONG. I have AOL. and the sending of a link to anyone to sign up to a poker room is a violation of thier terms of service. FT has the current customer put their friend's anme and email onto FT's own site and THEY send the link. But PDC doesn't, so I sent it via AOL and got quite a surprise, tonight. here is their eamil to me:
Dear Member,

AOL has a Terms of Service agreement which provides community guidelines for online conduct. We want to inform you that we received a report regarding a violation of those guidelines. Here is the information we have placed on the account regarding this incident:

Screen Name: pkrplr4116

Date: 2009-02-08 17:37:36.0

violation clip: Chris, only people with validated accts can get real money transfers. there is a vast difference between real money and play money transfers so DON\'T make transfers with people you don\'t know!

Subject: please sign up to poker.com thru this link and ask them to validate you NOW

Our Terms of Service agreement, which was presented during the sign up process, allows AOL to be informative, entertaining and, above all, fun for all of our Members. You can review that agreement by using Keyword: TOS or by going to the following AOL page:

http://help.aol.com/help/legal.do?kcp=memberagreement

Please be advised that further violations may result in closure of your AOL account(s).

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Please note, this screen name cannot accept replies. Therefore, if you have any comments or questions please forward a copy of this email to: TOSGeneral@aol.com

Regards,
AOL Community

Confused about this.

I'm a little confused to. Reading their TO(ugh)S(hit), thinking is might be this....?


You are responsible for all activities under your account, including the use of your account and Screen Name by others. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential. You may use the Services for lawful purposes only. You may not submit or transmit through the AOL Network any material, or otherwise engage in any conduct that:

6. encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, or that gives rise to civil liability;

But I'll bet everyone including Yahoo has some disclaimer like that too. AOL sucks, always has, always will.

The only reason I could think of to have AOL instead of a REAL internet service provider would be if that's the only option in your area. If so, that's a shame.

Interesting , I wonder if an AOL user from the UK would have the same issues as pkrplr. I doubt they would as gaming/gambling online isn't a crime in the UK.
Saying that, I wonder what would happen if a UK resident with an AOL isp sent a similar e-mail to someone residing in the USA, and vice versa for that matter.
They would have to read their countries isp TOS I suppose. Another question would be, were AOL ( and other isp's ) told/forced to add these terms by the USA after gambling online became illegal? Will they be compensating these isp's for the extra work carried out policing the terms if/when it once again becomes legal to have fun in your own home?

^^ This

AOL appear intent on stopping me or making it really hard for me to login on the iPoker network (constantly disconnecting me!)
I have no probs logging into Pokerstars ( who knows what agreements are made behind closed doors!!)
Also note AOL have their 'Jackpot Joy' which I'm sure I will have no probs with so they cannot say they dont want to encourage gambling!!
I am outraged AOL can get away with this blatant censorship.


I am disgusted AOL can operate this censorship.

To be fair, AOL sucks...

I concur.

AOL should only be used by internet beginners and kids whose parents want to monitor them. Period.

Aol is the worst internet provider that is out there hands down. Be careful that once you cancel your service they will continue to charge you for months on end

I had this happen, had to be like 8 - 10 yrs ago, when the internet was in its infancy. AOL had horrible phone support. And you could not cancel online. The only way was on the phone, and you'd have to wait 40 minutes. Don't even remember if it was a toll-free #, a big thing back then. But I couldn't hold on any longer especially not knowing how much longer it would be. They charged me 2 or 3 extra months. My credit was excellent, I said screw them. I think I finally got it resolved though. But what a-holes. I would nevvr go back.

I had very similar experience. Back then, there weren't any local ISPs, so I was stuck with them. Paid extra to be able to use a 1-800 access number, because the "local" access number was in-state long distance at some outrageous per minute charge. Well, for the 5 or so months I was stuck with them: they never once got my bill correct; the 1-800 number, on average (I timed it), disconnected every minute and a half to minute and 45 seconds; and my endless stream of emails and calls to "Customer Service" (located somewhere on the Indian sub-continent) got me repeated answers of "Please use the 'local' dial-up number. Needless to say, I signed up with a local ISP about 30 seconds after one became available. Then, I fought with them about my bill for another 4 months, until I actually won.

Course, they had the last laugh. They bought my favorite browser, Netscape, and screwed that up so badly I was stuck with IE until FireFox came along.

I was using AOL back in '94. It was most radical back then, dude.

READ THEM?!? ha ha ha