Who’d thought. Another AOL idea could potentially hit the proverbial fan. From the looks of it, some organizations are less than thrilled about the idea of a pay-per-send email system.

A diverse coalition of groups, many of them nonprofits, launched on Tuesday a campaign to pressure America Online Inc. into halting plans for a pay-to-send email system.

The coalition of 50 groups announced in a teleconference with reporters included political action committee MoveOn.org, Gun Owners of America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Association of Cancer Online Resources, the Humane Society, the AFL-CIO, and the media reform group Free Press. Among the individuals supporting the group was Craig Newmark, founder of popular classified ads site Craigslist.

In pressuring AOL, the coalition plans to circulate petitions among its memberships and to gather signatures online from the public in an open-letter to AOL that’s available through the Web site DearAOL.com. Source: InformationWeek

Tags: diverse coalition, aol battle, moveon.org, gun owners of america, the electronic frontier foundation, the association of cancer online resources, the humane society, the afl-cio