It would seem any e-postage system requires international
arrangements similar to what now accommodates the exchange of
physical mail.
I'm actually inclined to disagree with that. There would be
international agreements required, because email crosses national
boundaries, but I think drawing the analogy to the agreements involved
for paper mail places the emphasis in the wrong place. It makes it
sound as though the agreements would be between countries, when I think
the actually would need to be between providers, making them
international only when, and because, the providers involved are in
different countries.
The next question might be how would countries be compensated for the
dispersal of e-postage tokens, and their collection of fees?
Would they? That works for postal mail, but (I believe) only because
postal mail is a governmental monopoly. I doubt email will ever be a
national monopoly for more than a tiny fraction of the world's email
users, or mailservers. (Postage-bearing email might, but my guess, for
what it's worth, is that that would kill postage-bearing email.)
s/countries/providers/ and the question is still reasonable, though it
requires thinking about in a rather different way because the entities
involved are so different.
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