Re: [Asrg] Re: the e-postage argument

[Seth Breidbart <sethb at panix.com>]

"Tom Thomson" <tthomson@neosinteractive.com> wrote:
(He didn't quote properly, so it isn't clear what he wrote.)

> How come SSL certificates in HTTPS transactions can work? Aren't they
> reasonably analogous?

No; anybody can generate one.  Somebody who wanted billions of valid
ones could just spend a little CPU time.

> For most users, all outgping email is already routed through the
> ISP's outgoing mail servers, so the extra costs they cause are
> limited to the cost of generating the digest and signing it. For
> most emails, outgpoing email is not routed through the ISP's
> servers, so there is also the additional cost of accepting, storing,
> and forwarding the email.

The reason for the discrepancy is probably just spam.

> A charging model which allows say 50 emails per day free will
> probably leave email free to the average consumer

What stops spammers from using ISPs that allow unlimited email, or
inventing their own "ISPs"?

> There is no need to introduce inter-ISP payments for handling
> each-other's email traffic distinct from any payments already used
> for providing bandwidth and/or handling general internet traffic.

Somebody who hosts a website generally doesn't much care how much
somebody else's customers look at that website (and somebody with
customers doesn't care what websites they look at or how much).  But
the whole problem here is that people _do_ care about how much email
gets received.

> The european postal union certainly deosn't have such transfer
> payments between its members, why should an email system?

If it doesn't, what stops a spammer from joining?

> The vast bureaucracy may not be too great a price to pay to
> eliminate spam.  Government control of our email (through government
> regulation of the clearing houses) may not be too great a price to
> pay.

It is for something that won't work.  (When has a government provided
anything else?)

Seth

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