[OT] Re: mass email distribution software

["Keith G. Murphy" <keithmur@mindspring.com>]

martin f krafft wrote:
> 
> also sprach Lang Hurst <grakker_plus@yahoo.com> [2002.01.28.2013 +0100]:
> > This is getting even further off topic, but the first person who
> > figures out how to make micro payments with regard to the web will
> > make a killing.
> 
> ask bill gates. he's actually proposed something like this. you
> receive an email, the sender is billed unless you accept the mailing.
> now how ridiculous is that.
> 
Wow, I had a *very* similar idea myself a few years back; I even wrote
Bob Metcalfe about it, when he was writing in InfoWorld on the subject
of spam.  Wish I'd patented now!  It's not such a bad idea, if you add
these two provisos:

* The payment is *small* (think 10 cents), thereby disadvantaging mass
mailers without hurting normal users much at all.
* The payment (collected by the sender's ISP) goes mainly towards
supporting the 'net infrastructure.  It should not go to the person
rejecting the mailing, thereby eliminating a bias in favor of rejection.

Actually, my idea was that the fee is automatically levied, but the
recipient would waive it upon receipt, if he so desired.  (That part
could be automatic, with manual intervention triggered by spam filters).

Yes, I've heard most of the objections, but when you really think about
it, a lot of them go away.