Re: Excerpt on SPAM from Edupage, 11 February 1997
At 10:19 AM -0600 2/15/97, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:
I much prefer the plan where a potential mail correspondant includes an e-cash dollar directly cashable by me. If I like the mail (and the sender), I throw the dollar away and the sender goes on the approved list. If not, I keep the dollar, and the sender goes on the twit list. Paper junk mail costs an advertiser more than $1 per piece, so they'd still be getting a bargain. And potentially, some receivers may throw away the dollar and welcome the spam.
The basic flaw in all of these schemes is that they are "top-down" solutions, imposed on the market for invented reasons. The reason paper mail "spam" (advertisements, solicitations, whatever) costs whatever it costs (hint: less than a dollar...check the Bulk Rate prices, and look for the 8-cent and 16-cent stamps on many of the solicitations) is because this is what the Postal Service charges. Granted, the USPS is hardly a free market player, and uses force to keep out competitors, but the general principle is that some semi-market-based fee is charged, and larger packages will cost more, etc. The basic flaw with e-mail is that the senders of e-mail are not paying for carriage. However, just "making up" a fee--as Roy does here, and as Jim Bell and others have done before--is not a solution either. Nor does it stand any chance of being "enforced" (for a large number of reasons I won't get into here). I don't expect any solutions anytime soon, but I certainly will not push for "synthetic" prices which do not solve the underlying problem. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
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Timothy C. May