On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 12:30:54AM -0400, Yakov Shafranovich wrote
> What about interoperability? How will different email providers
> decided who is responsible for paying what? Also, who will enforce
> such structure? Postal services of many countries use a UN affiliated
> organization called the International Postal Union which settles
> these matters. Is it good to put control into one body?
It doesn't have to be one body; it can be several companies. Say a
consortium which receives 50 cents per email, and the originating
company gets 25 cents per email. (This will discourage spammers from
playing shell games with fake ISPs). The average person can obtain
read-only accounts, with an option to send one-off emails for a dollar
each. It will complement regular email, not replace it. Something
along the lines of UPS/Fedex/Purolater. Too expensive for everyday
correspondence but just right for files that absolutely *HAVE* to get
there.
It just the thought of putting something like email into centralized
control that unnerves me. Just look at what happened to ICANN. Another
issue is that this proposal would require completely new infrastructure.