A reader's response to E-mail postage:
Interesting comments. The problem, however, is not spam. The problem is the major e-mail service providers' desire to cash in on one more area of the Internet.
Spam is not a problem. Spam is more like junk mail. I don't know about you, but I simply toss any junk mail that comes into my mail box. Unopened. Unread. Simple solution.
For spam, I use a product called "Mail Washer." (There are many other, similar products out there.) I get a list of e-mail subject lines, click the check box next to ones I don't want, and click the "process mail" button. Mail Washer then deletes all checked e-mails before I download to my inbox. Unopened. Unread. Simple solution. Cost of the product? Whatever you want to contribute. (I gave the programmer $25 three years ago.)
I recognize that the major e-mail service providers have to provide substantial amounts of equipment to handle the volume of all e-mail. That cost we, the consumers, already pay in service fees.
I have no problem paying corporations or developers money for solutions that solve my problems. I have a huge problem paying for solutions that solve THEIR problems when I do not contribute to their problems. One proposed solution is to segregate e-mail from spammers from all other e-mail, and only charge the spammers. This solution would reduce their equipment needs. Would this reduce other charges to the consumer? No way!
The technology to segregate e-mail senders does not exist today. The development costs, I suspect, would be very large. Once developed, most spammers would stop sending e-mails. The costs, however, still exist. And those companies would use the cost of their "protection" as justification for charging every user for using e-mail. That is the real goal. Just another way to enhance revenue by putting another layer of cost on the consumer.
Spam is not a difficult problem. The simple solution is to just throw it away like junk mail.
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