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Visible feature: not free to send?

2004-02-12 04:54:18

This is clearly controversial, but maybe worth thinking about.

Many years ago, when working with some fax-related technology, a customer mentioned to me that a big advantage of fax vis-a-vis email was that it was _not_ free to the sender.

If we were to take a view that email should not be free for anyone to send to anyone, then I think that would fundamentally constrain the technical design of any system that conforms to such a goal. Is freedom to speak, for free, at anyone truly a desirable goal in a global network?

The details of what is or is not free can surely range over many variations, but my question is directed to the principle, not the detail.

#g


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Graham Klyne
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