• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 5, 2004

Just three days after launching the anti-spam initiative "Make Love Not Spam" to worldwide publicity, Lycos Europe officially pulled the plug on the plan.

In a written statement, Lycos Europe said the campaign had accomplished its purpose--raising awareness about spam. "The campaign has reached its goal and thus will be stopped," stated the company.

"Make Love Not Spam" invited consumers to download a screensaver containing software that attacked alleged spammers' Web sites, ultimately decreasing their bandwidth. Lycos Europe representatives earlier said that Web sites would only be attacked if they were on a blacklist that had been manually vetted.

Before shuttering, the high-profile program--downloaded about 100,000 times--incurred the wrath of marketers and industry observers. They accused Lycos Europe of encouraging vigilantism, and feared that the program could inadvertently cripple lawful companies.

"All the scrutiny seems to have forced their hand a bit," said lawyer and marketing consultant Alan Chapell. "Perhaps the silver lining in all this is that we've drawn a line in the sand regarding acceptable online practices."

In its statement, Lycos Europe denied rumors swirling on the Internet that its own site had been attacked. The company also stated that "Make Love Not Spam" was not to blame for shutting down two alleged spammers. Web analytics firm Netcraft had earlier reported that Lycos Europe's program took down two sites and severely slowed a third.