Stamps to send E-Mail??? Good/Bad Idea??

[WEG_G]

NEW YORK (AP) -- If the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail for free, our mailboxes would surely runneth over with more credit-card offers, sweepstakes entries, and supermarket fliers. That's why we get so much junk e-mail: It's essentially free to send. So Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, among others, is now suggesting that we start buying "stamps" for e-mail


read the rest here:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

[Evil Chris]

Just remember....

"When you control the mail..... You control.... INFORMATION!"
*-Newman-*

[WEG_G]

LMAO thats the perfect quote Chris.

[Mister X]

We already pay for our internet connection so paying for "e-stamps" would be a crock of shit. And the argument that email is free to send is obviously ignorant and wrong. The spammers out there pay big money for servers and bandwidth to send email and the rest of us pay our isp. Plus there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of being able to license anyone to sell "stamps". Set up an agency in the US to look after that and they would have zero chance of any other country signing up. And even if they did it would be too damn easy to just bypass their entire system. And virtually anyone with a brain would do it. Because obviously any system that would make "stamps" useable would involve a monster database tracking each and every single piece of email sent. Most likely a lot of that is already being done, legally or otherwise, but why the fuck should we have to pay them to spy on us? And who would we trust to do it? Spam can be filtered and deleted. It's often a pain in the ass but it's actually a better system than the snail mail system. With snailmail you don't have the power to filter the garbage that the monopolistic postal services get paid to deliver to you. I can see that anyone selling "stamps" would certainly have an interest in seeing that mail they are paid for actually gets into every mailbox.

In short: Fuck Bill Gates and Fuck the Scumbags that want to get rich by selling us something that we are already paying for.

Tracking every piece of e-mail...

Indeed.

That's the ultimate goal.

There are other ways. Fully anonymous, self-clearing digital bearer shares. Pure bi-directionally anonymous e-money.

But that scheme will never get implemented because the minit it happens, no looting govt will ever be able to confiscate a penny from you.

This technology brings the cost of a transaction to sub-penny level, opening the door to micro-payements.

In the long run, that is what should be implemented for e-mail. Pay 1/10th ¢ per e-mail sent. But I think Mr. Gate$ plan involves IPV6, the answer to Big Brother myopic eye' prayer under IP V4.

[-=HUNGRYMAN=-]

The sky is falling ... The sky is falling ....

[Panky]

It's a brilliant concept. One that can be used to serve a variety of uses. Those people who tend not to look at the big picture, will jump on the bandwagon and push for this idea to become a reality.

Why don't we all just bend over and take it up the ass like Lawrence...


What will be next ? We already pay for email. It's a feature we have access to when we open up accounts, or when we run our own servers and software. We would then be paying again to use a service we already paid for.

Would we have to pay to publish websites?

Would we have to pay to search the web?

We already pay for these too. We would then be paying again and again and again.



Apparently, Mr. Gates doesn't have enough billions for a rainy day. The American Gov't will be more than happy to help this project along. It will allow them to legally do what they have been doing behind the scenes for years. Just on a much wider scale. Plus, they can make billions off of just the Americans alone.

Microsoft is worldwide. This idea, if ever implemented, will force other Gov'ts to follow suit. Suppose an American in Germany wants to send an email home. They would not only have to pay whatever fee the Germans determine for their electronic postage, then the Americans would probably impose some kind of fee before the message would be delivered and readable. Not only that, but each Gov't would be legally able to keep records of every email.

The whole idea to present this to the public by saying we want to fight the spammers, is bullshit. It's an excuse to gain attention and support. Even my 94 year old grandmother who doesn't own a computer knows what spam is. It's a brilliant way to introduce this idea.

The concept of making us complete a math problem or solve a puzzle before we can send our email or use an email system is ridiculous. People are impatient. They would rather buy electronic postage, then sit there and take a minute or whatever to answer questions, complete a math problem, solve a puzzle... Are we going to get to choose the subject and skill level? Today, I feel like answering 80's music trivia. Tomorrow, I think I'll try to prove a complex geometry problem.

[nanda]

Originally posted by Mister X
We already pay for our internet connection so paying for "e-stamps" would be a crock of shit. And the argument that email is free to send is obviously ignorant and wrong. The spammers out there pay big money for servers and bandwidth to send email and the rest of us pay our isp. Plus there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of being able to license anyone to sell "stamps". Set up an agency in the US to look after that and they would have zero chance of any other country signing up. And even if they did it would be too damn easy to just bypass their entire system. And virtually anyone with a brain would do it. Because obviously any system that would make "stamps" useable would involve a monster database tracking each and every single piece of email sent. Most likely a lot of that is already being done, legally or otherwise, but why the fuck should we have to pay them to spy on us? And who would we trust to do it? Spam can be filtered and deleted. It's often a pain in the ass but it's actually a better system than the snail mail system. With snailmail you don't have the power to filter the garbage that the monopolistic postal services get paid to deliver to you. I can see that anyone selling "stamps" would certainly have an interest in seeing that mail they are paid for actually gets into every mailbox.

In short: Fuck Bill Gates and Fuck the Scumbags that want to get rich by selling us something that we are already paying for.

EXACTLY!! They just keep coming up with ways to screw us over, while they get richer. There is NO way I want to pay for emails,why should we? What's next? Pay for ICQ messages? Please...