Email Sender and Provider Coalition Opens Its Doors to Industry Leaders Beyond Email Service Providers

Thirteen New Members Including Microsoft Reflect a Broader Scope in Membership

York, Me., April 13, 2005 -- Today, the Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) expanded the scope of its membership to include a wide range of industry leaders who are combating spam while protecting the viability of email as a communications channel. Email infrastructure providers, mail transfer agents, Internet Service Providers, non profits, anti-spam application providers and deliverability solution providers are invited to join the ESPC's membership of 58 leading organizations united to provide technological solutions to avert spammers. To reflect the broadened scope, the ESPC also announced thirteen new members including Emma Email Marketing, Financial Publishers Association, Goodmail Systems, Habeas Inc., IAM Registry Corp, IronPort Systems, Microsoft, Quotient Marketing Inc., Sendmail Inc., TRUSTe and Vocus Inc. The ESPC has also expanded its steering committee to include Return Path Inc.

"We recognized the broader interest in the industry to help protect email when leading email infrastructure providers Port25 Solutions and StrongMail Systems joined the ESPC last year," Trevor Hughes, executive director of the Email Sender and Provider Coalition, said. "We're thrilled with the growing participation from industry leaders beyond our core group of Email Service Provider members, especially an important constituent like Microsoft. Extending the membership will bring further insight to our discussion of broad industry challenges as well as present a unified voice pertaining to current ESPC issues such as CAN-SPAM compliance, authentication and reputation standards and email deliverability."

Formed in 2002, the ESPC recognizes the need for strong technological anti-spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email. The association is a respected influencer in the email marketing industry and works very closely with various solutions and service providers.

• The Legislative Committee, chaired by Trevor Hughes, guides lobbying efforts on federal and state spam legislation and provides direct advocacy before the FTC and Congress.
• The Technology Committee, co-chaired by Joshua Baer of SKYLIST and Gene McKenna of Digital Impact, evaluates and develops technological solutions that provide more accurate responses to spam and fewer false positives.
• The Receiver Relations Committee, co-chaired by Dave Lewis of StrongMail Systems and Ben Isaacson of CheetahMail, an Experian Company, serves as the voice of senders to ISPs and reputation service providers to achieve both accountability and successful delivery of legitimate email communications.
• The Communications Committee, chaired by Leslie Price of Return Path Inc., with support from Kathleen Bagley Formidoni of blast! Public Relations Inc. provides the broad public affairs strategy and has been actively working to highlight the need for standards as well as the consumer harm associated with false positives and filtering. This committee also provides guidance and support for press relations.

About the Email Sender and Provider Coalition:
The Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed in 2002 to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC is composed of 58 members including CheetahMail, an Experian Company; Constant Contact; Digital Impact; DoubleClick; ProspectivDirect; Return Path Inc.; SKYLIST and StrongMail. For more information on ESPC, please visit www.espcoalition.org.