Re: [PLUG] [OT] Postage on EMail?

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On 11 Mar, 2004, at 15:01, George Gallen wrote:

> I'd like to know who is going to keep track of the stamps?
> And how will this stop a spammer from using an ISP outside
>    the country that doesn't impose email sending fees?
>
> Since 99% of my spam seems to come from China, fees on sending
> based in the US/EU won't stop much of it.

Actually, it will stop all of it.

You forget how First Class (and other) Snail Mail works...

For countries to ACCEPT letters from another country it must carry the 
appropriate postage. (Granted, there are 300 year old treaties which 
support this.)

It is also the exact same system with the Rail Roads use to track the 
movement of boxcars.

Or the system used by TPC (The phone company) to track and charge for 
your phone calls.

There is no difference between "authenticated" email and "postage paid" 
email -- they are simply different names for the same process. In one 
case you supply a magic code that identifies you uniquely and says you 
are legitimate. In the other you spend dollars to obtain that same 
legitimatization. If you want to send "anonymous" email, you opt for 
the latter form.

"Micro payments" (keeping track of all the stamps) is what DoKoMo has 
been pioneering in Japan so that you can buy a coke or pokemon with 
your cellphone.

Unsolicited Commercial Email, now lumped in with SPAM, exists because 
there is no downside to it. There are zero costs associated with 
sending it out and therefore the potential upside rewards are huge.

"The Internet is Free" cuts both ways ... SPAM is economic freedom and 
competition at its "best." There are no constraints, everyone is free 
to invent a better mousetrap (filter avoider).

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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