Simon, The proposals haven't been to eliminate free email, only to provide an alternative which folks can require be used to send them email if they haven't established a free relationship with the sender. In the USA today, it costs $.37 to send a physical mail. I don't think it unreasonable for someone sending me mail to pay a similar fee and conversely for me to pay such a fee for each of my posts to the IETF list, even though I would expect the list to use a free channel to distribute the result. I don't believe there is any right to free mail or email service so I don't see a reason to be overly concerned that a user of a community computer can't send free email. In addition to the free email channel which would have to continue to exist, providers of 'no charge' email services such as the bottom end Yahoo service could offer some number of free stamps per month combined with credits I suggested for receiveing postage paid mail, folks with marginal economic situations should be able to participate in email. Dave Morris On Wed, 28 May 2003, S Woodside wrote: > > On Tuesday, May 27, 2003, at 08:51 PM, J. Noel Chiappa wrote: > > > Which is precisely why I say that the solution to spam is to charge for > > email. It avoids the whole question of defining what is and is not > > spam. > > > > More specifically, change the email protocol so that when email > > arrives from > > an entity which is not on the "email from these entities is free" > > list, the > > email is rejected unless is accompanied by a payment for $X (where X > > is set > > by a knob on the machine). > > This would be unfortunate for people who do not have a lot of money. > Even if the payment were miniscule, 0.01$ or whatever, the payment > system might require a bank account, or a credit card, etc., to > participate in. That would effectively block out a substantial > percentage of the earth's population, people who use community centres, > libraries, schools, etc. for free access or internet cafes for cheap > occasional access. > > simon > > -- > www.simonwoodside.com -- 99% Devil, 1% Angel > > > _______________________________________________ > This message was passed through ietf_censored@carmen.ipv6.cselt.it, which is a sublist of ietf@ietf.org. Not all messages are passed. Decisions on what to pass are made solely by Raffaele D'Albenzio. >