Elric, that is exactly correct. I'd say it isn't necessary to see if the
email was delivered just that it was sent (think about the USPS - even
if the mail doesn't make it to the destination you still put a stamp on
it). Monitoring of traffic by an ISP isn't all that difficult.
The point isn't that anything costs anymore actually. You are merely
trying to provide an economic disadvantage to sending out a million
email messages!
Chuck Wegrzyn
Elric Pedder wrote:
From: asrg-admin(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org [mailto:asrg-admin(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On
Behalf Of C. Wegrzyn
Sent: July 2, 2003 16:38
To: Barry Shein
Cc: gep2(_at_)terabites(_dot_)com; Yakov Shafranovich; asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: 6. Solutions - Longterm - Replacing SMTP (Re:
[Asrg] Bogus reasoning)
I believe the only real alternative is for every ISP (and
this can be done I believe) to take on a per-email
transaction fee.
This proposal is made quite often, but I cannot see how it
would work.
SMTP does not require the participation of any ISP other than
for the transmission of packets. In order to levy a charge,
the ISP would have to monitor your traffic, detect SMTP
usage, detect actual e-mail delivery, and bill you for it.
What you create is an incentive for users to avoid the
detection of SMTP delivery -- a whole new problem.
Without getting in to the "big brother" concepts or using
some sort of "centralised register of authorised e-mail
delivery agents" perhaps ISPs could bill a higher rate for
port 25-destined traffic than other traffic, and require that
every SMTP transaction contain only one RCPT address.
Unfortunately port 25-destined traffic does not actually
cost any more than other-port-destined traffic. Therefore
in a competitive marketplace prices will be driven down to
cost+margin.
The only weapon I can think of against market competition is
the government. So... would you accept a government tax on
e-mail?
Ultimately, I just don't see how you could charge for e-mail.
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