Neither the small computation or a email stamp purchase are the brain childs of microsoft. However this idea is gaining mind share because the redmond machine has put its weight behind it.

I think the government might like the idea of email postage, since it would serve as an entry point into the taxation of email. Plus a systematic government postage system could underpin email tracking, since postage key (stamp) and key checking would probably not be anonymous.

Even if a national email postage system is used, I don't think everybody would use it, since it would be hard to stuff the free email cat back in the bag. There might be two systems, where you only allow free email from known friends and family, but use the postage system when going outside of known sources.

As I read it, it's not about revenue, it's about bandwidth. This is the same idea as parking meters. Meters don't yield a lot of revenue -- they're designed to keep parking spots on city streets turning over.

But IMO, applying the idea to email is just plain whacky. It's like requiring pay phones in everyone's house to cut down on telemarketers. Regulate the spammers, but leave private folks alone.

Bill Gates is talking about establishing a pre-paid postage for each email sent. Even at a penny per email, the revenue generate, would be mind boggling!

I agree with Ex, that regular folks should be left alone. There should be other ways of solving the spam issue than having to charge or use more of a persons time.

I receive junk mail, like everyone else, but is this problem large enough that it really needs to be addressed?

[ This Message was edited by: Quicksilver on 2004-03-09 13:11 ]

If microsoft servers became the e-postmaster for this email postage system I wouldn't support it. I assumed the final spec would be governed/controlled by an entity like ICANN (which oversee the domain name system).