NYT: Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail (AOL Yahoo)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/05AOL.html?hp&ex=1139202000&en=e20151140e28eea1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers.

America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.

The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. Thy also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.

AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links. As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam.

[electricray]

1. I know I am supposed to be pissed off about this but

I kind of like the idea of being able to customize my spam filters further and have an opportunity to guarantee a delivery if possible.

In short, I think it could be a good thing if it is used as a consumer tool and not just a corporate infomercial delivery system. Unfortunately, with no oversight and a SCOTUS that is pro-biz, chances are the latter is almost guaranteed.

[ArtH]

6. e-mail postage

   Ditto electricray's remarks, both parts. 

[unblock]

2. i'd say 99% of the spam i get is from companies who wouldn't pay

so my first guess is that they won't make much money from this and it won't do much of anything.

but i've been wrong once or twice before....

[EST]

3. What I want to see is a system that requires

these execrable entrepreneurs to pay me to drop spam in my in-box. These unwelcome crashers force me to expend time and money to defend myself against them. I don't care for it one bit, especially the powerlessness--they will never unsubscribe you from their nasty pressures, no matter what you do.

[Delphinus]

9. Much better idea.

As someone who uses e-mail for the company I work for to keep clients and people associated with us up-to-date, I wouldn't really want to incur the cost.

[htuttle]

4. Is this similar to the old CIX fees from way back?

I remember, back in the day, when DARPANET went away, and NSF stopped funding the internet backbone, the so-called 'CIX' group (Commercial Internet Exchange) made of the top 5 or so internet hubs (PSI, Uunet, CERFnet, and Sprintlink) started charging downstream ISPs fees for passing on email. Did that stay in place, and is this just an outgrowth of that?

[twenty4blackbirds]

5. strange set up for postage-paid email

remember the wild frontier of the dial-up internet? courtesy and old-fashioned trust? the users had the knowledge to handle their email inbox? /oldfart
oh well. in the old days there wasn't Nintendo DS, iPod, etc. Bring on the thrust of technology...I'll forget how to programme the tv recording machine next.

[stevietheman]

7. I will be asking aol.com and yahoo.com members of my discussion board...

to change to new email addresses; otherwise I will be deleting their accounts after a few months.

The very idea that I would have to pay to ensure that board notifications and mass emails get through is preposterous, so I'm banning such email addresses from being attached to member accounts.

As an operator of a discussion board, I refuse to have to put up with these email providers to see fit to work against the spirit of the open Internet.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. We often have problems with AOL customers

We sell downloadable software. When a customer buys our software, our ordering service emails the password and download info. On occasion, the customer emails to complain they never received the password - and this is almost always an AOL customer. When we send an email to tell them to eplain the problem, that email also sometimes gets rejected by AOL. A few times I have to get their phone number and call to explain the problem.

Explaining technical problems to AOL users can be lots of fun.