America Online Refund Information

The author of this site is Brian Youngerman, a long time member of the online community, having first joined a bulletin board in 1988, and Prodigy and PC Link (America Online) in 1989. He is an attorney, Web designer, and sports writer.

Online resume of the author:

1990: Participated in the Prodigy Protest, the first known online services protest by online services members.

1990-1991: Online teacher for PC Link (later known as America Online).

1993: Appeared on Jerry Springer Show to discuss social aspects of the online community.

1994-???: Host of Late Night Sports Chat in AOL's Sports Grandstand, an online sports community on AOL. First AOL host to bring sports team owner online to chat with AOL members (Philadelphia Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie), and first to host a Grandstand chat event from a sports venue (The Palestra). Created the longest-running free sports newsletter on AOL.

1994-present: Publisher of The Sports Bar Sports Newsletter, with email circulation of over 400 and available on The Sports Bar online sports forum.

1994: Appeared on The Phil Donahue Show with online relationships expert Deborah Baumrucker to discuss social aspects of the online community.

1995-1996: Assisted local ABC affiliate with background information and on-air interviews for a series of Internet-related news segments.

1993-1995: Assisted Errol "Bing" Trobee in his Terms of Service and defamation lawsuit against America Online, serving as Trobee's counsel in some matters pertaining to the lawsuit.

1996 to present: Member of LibertyNet, a Philadelphia-area community-based Internet and Web design organization which provides free Internet-related services to non-profit community-based organizations.

1996: Letter published in InfoWorld Magazine, objecting to the favorable characterization of AOL's settlement in a series of billing-related class action lawsuits.

1996: Submitted 11 page brief on behalf of AOL consumers to the California court in the billing-related class action lawsuits, objecting to a settlement which gave millions in fees to class-action attorneys but only (at most) one free hour of online time to some of AOL's consumers, leaving other consumers without any benefit.

1996: Appeared via conference call in California court settlement hearing of billing-related class action lawsuits, as an objector to AOL's proposed settlement.

1996-1997: Attorney for Marc Stern (former AOL Grandstand Sports host) in Stern's lawsuit against America Online.

1997: Permanently banned from ever using America Online by AOL attorney Randall Boe. The letter will be available online shortly.

1997: Letter published in Network World Magazine, objecting to NW's business-favorable position on online copyrights. The author, an attorney, believes that current copyright laws already apply to online databases, and any further protection of databases would infringe on free speech and use of public-domain information, such as sports scores and information.

October 27, 1997: This AOL Refund site mentioned on page F19 in the Washington Post. I am referred to as a "vocal AOL detractor."