From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rafal@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Mon Jul 14 2003 - 19:04:19 MDT
Benoit wrote:
> On Monday 14 July 2003 22:38, Steve Davies wrote:
>
>> Am I just being simple but isn't a simple solution to charge for
>> sending emails? Quite a modest charge would make spam unprofitable
>> (unless the
>
> Eeeeuw, are you on drugs ? That would be the greatest victory for
> spammers ever: hit our essential liberty to communicate freely as
> much as we want for a nominal fee.
### Actually, the idea is something different - it is not supposed to be a
fee imposed by a monopolist like the post office, or even a service
provider. Instead, every email user might have the option in his email
program to demand a "delivery fee" to be paid to him, in advance, by the
sender, for the privilege of the sender's message actually showing up in the
inbox. Since you, the receiver, imposed the fee, you can waive it for people
you trust, so you still exchange email almost for free with friends.
Occasionally you might have to pay a fee to reach somebody who doesn't know
you (but if he is a nice person, he would return your fee after seeing you
are not a spammer or a troll).
Aside from controlling spam, there would be additional benefits. Depending
on how high you judge the value of your time, you could demand a higher
delivery fee, and if people really want to communicate with you, they will
pay. On the other hand, persons who are not judged important, will need to
keep their fees low, if they want anybody to talk to them at all. A
beautiful, self-governing free market system, rewarding nice and smart
people, and automatically suppressing boring and bothersome rants.
Rafal
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