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

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

On 11 Mar, 2004, at 15:52, jazzman@exdomain.org wrote:
> Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents into the ring on this. It seems to me
> that the difference between the email systems of the world and the post
> offices of the world is that the post offices need REAL PHYSICAL 
> methods
> of delivering the mail, so some kind of fee/tax is necessary to make 
> that
> possible. In an electronic world, there is no such resource demand. All
> that's needed are at least two machines and some way to connect them
> (copper, fibre, ether for wireless, IP by carrier pigeon even!).

What are: "(copper, fibre, ether for wireless, IP by carrier pigeon 
even!)." if not REAL PHYSICAL methods of delivering the mail?

There are costs associated with electronic mail -- they just happen to 
be dramatically less because of "economies of scale" (and a host of 
other, similar factors).

The underlying issue is resource control and allocation.

"From each according to their ability to each according to their needs."

A spammer "needs" a LOT of bandwidth -- just because you don't like 
what they are doing does not give you the right to censor what they are 
doing.

Throughout the history of mankind there has been only one thing which 
successfully allocates resources, more or less peacefully, -- "money." 
You can have as much as you want as long as you pay for it. And the 
more you "want" the more I can charge you for it. Ultimately we reach a 
point where you are not willing to pay for more, and I have some left 
over.

This is one of the main reasons why, until IPv6 is widely adopted and 
QOS becomes a reality, these kinds of problems will continue to exist. 
Charging for email is just another "QOS fee."

And as a side note ... even though folks are now claiming the 60-80% of 
all Internet traffic is SPAM, THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF BANDWIDTH 
INSIGHT!!!!!

Right now, (ignoring the last mile problem) there is such a glut of 
bandwidth that it makes the "communications costs" of outsourcing jobs 
to India STILL cheaper than paying people locally. Money is still being 
saved even though you are buying OC6 pipes between Philadelphia and 
Bangladesh.  This is the real legacy of MCI/Worldcom, Global Crossing 
and the rest of the "Great Telecosim" bubble.

Think about why it is even possible to get SPAM from China. It wasn't a 
problem 5 years ago because 5 years ago, there was 1 T1 connecting the 
mainland to the rest of the world.
(Ok, maybe it wasn't 5 years ago, it was 7... 10 years ago they weren't 
even connected except by dial-up uucp.)

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

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