AntiSpam Group Rails Against E-Mail Postage

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

You may recall my earlier post about Yahoo and AOL starting to use e-mail postage, which will give those who pay the postage certain privileges that normal email would not receive. One of their reasons, if you recall, was a reduction in spam. Though as I stated in that same post, I don’t see that much spam getting past the filters anyway, so I didn’t really see much use for this, in that respect. On Monday, Richard Cox, CEO at antispam organization Spamhaus, spoke out about the issue. He said that “an e-mail charge will destroy the spirit of the Internet.”

“The Internet has become what it is because of freedom of communication. Open discussion is what gives it value. There should be no cost for particular services, and e-mail should be free and accessible to all. This will disenfranchise people,” Cox said.

Cox said that charging for e-mail services was unlikely to reduce spam.

“It won’t reduce spam directly. AOL is already good at managing spam issues, and Yahoo is getting better,” Cox said. “It may make it easier to filter mail, and may provide more resources for spam prevention, but it could also mean that people lose e-mails and so change provider,” he added. Source: News.com

We Say: I continue to say, if this is being sold as an antispam measure, I just don’t agree with it. Frankly, I still think this is more a way to boost the bottom line of both companies than anything else.