Recently, Bill Gates claimed the problem of spam, the annoying unsolicited e-mail that congests the Internet, could be solved in the next two years. Some may scoff at this idea, but when one examines the marketplace, Gates’ prediction may even seem conservative. That’s because an old idea is finally getting some new attention. For years now, the two methods of fighting spam have been attempts to use law or technology. The real way to beat spammers is to make them pay.
I wouldn't mind spam so much if *I* was paid for receiving it. Instead of paying the ISP for spam, pay the recipients. If you pay the ISP, they will want to encourage the spammers to send even more spam since they would then make money on every spam email. I can see it now "Send out 10,000,000 spam emails and get a 25% discount!"
Sorry, Sonia. You are not even close to being right. E-stamps are not the way to go because they allow the ISP to maintain control over who can communicate with you and who can't. It would be like the consumer letting the phone company put an operator between your phone and anyone who calls you and forcing them to pay to get to you. There are names for these types of gangs that require payments on a regular basis...and they are not the way we want to go with email! There is a better solution around the corner and it's a lot simpler. It just requires a little imagination and the hard-nosed approach of letting the consumer retain all control. Watch carefully as we roll this out over the next year. You will be not only pleasantly surprised, but then you will see how wrong you are.
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The Answer to Stopping Spam Is in Your Wallet
Posted by: Sonia Arrison February 11, 2004 07:46 AMRecently, Bill Gates claimed the problem of spam, the annoying unsolicited e-mail that congests the Internet, could be solved in the next two years. Some may scoff at this idea, but when one examines the marketplace, Gates’ prediction may even seem conservative. That’s because an old idea is finally getting some new attention. For years now, the two methods of fighting spam have been attempts to use law or technology. The real way to beat spammers is to make them pay.
I can see it now "Send out 10,000,000 spam emails and get a 25% discount!"
There is a better solution around the corner and it's a lot simpler. It just requires a little imagination and the hard-nosed approach of letting the consumer retain all control. Watch carefully as we roll this out over the next year. You will be not only pleasantly surprised, but then you will see how wrong you are.