On 23 Apr 2004, John Levine wrote:
The european postal union certainly deosn't have such transfer
payments between its members, why should an email system?
I think it would be a good idea to look at this page:
http://www.upu.int/payment_compensation/en/index.html
You might want to take a look at http://www.upu.int in general.
Don't miss the page where it says that their new low-cost online
settlement clearing system costs betwen CH 1500 and CH 15000 per
year (CH == Swiss francs) depending on how big you are.
R's,
John
Traditionally (for 100 years or so) post offices exchanged first class
mail without the exchange of funds, but the rules always required that
such mail hav substantial postage affixed at the source, it is just that
the revenue was not shared with the receiving country PO.
Parcel post has always involved settlements, as far as I know.
Analogies do not make for strong arguments, and I can't tell if this one
favors e-postage or not. The situations are quite different and little is
to be learned by assuming the lessons of one are relevant to the other,
although certainly they can be a source of ideas or inspiration. It does
show that it is possible to have postage without settlements.
Daniel Feenberg
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