DAMN THE SPAM !!

How About 1¢ per Kilobyte per Email?


by Oscar Falconi



Early postal services required the ADDRESSEE to pay the cost of RECEIVING a letter! But in 1653, two Parisians received permission to set up a postal service requiring the COMPULSORY PREPAYMENT of correspondence. Billets costing one sol, inscribed "Port Paye" (Postage Paid) were fastened to, or wrapped around the message so a postal official of the "Petite Poste" could remove it easily. This system was improved with the advent of the adhesive postage stamp first used in London in 1840.

But it was the realization of the unfairness of having the recipient pay for the correspondence that finally resulted in a successful postal service. After all, letters usually concern the sender's own business, and so should be prepaid out of consideration for the recipient.

So here we are, in the 21st Century, suffering emails-sent-free exactly the way addressees suffered letters-sent-free before 1653. In both cases, the recipients suffer an economic cost: Hard cash paid, back then, to receive a letter, or, now, the high cost, in time, of having to examine and cull endless "free" emails, and having to delete each of them twice.

I think it's time to get out of the 16th and 17th centuries and into the 21st century, and make the sender (spammer) pay for every kilobyte to every recipient. How about 1 cent per kilobyte per recipient? Invite a hundred friends to your party and it'll cost you just a dollar. A great bargain! That's less than the cost of your time to review and delete a dozen unwanted, spammed, emails. Or Email your newsletter to 10,000 subscribers and it'll only be $100 - or maybe $200 if you have lots to say. A greater bargain! AND THOSE INCONSIDERATE SPAMMERS would have to think twice before causing lifetimes of suffering just so they can make a few dollars.

Where does the money go? Who cares? Give it to the government, or to Goodwill, or even to the recipient - who cares? If it went to the government, it could contribute to the general fund, or it could go toward research to improve internet efficiency or security. But, gee-whiz, let's get out of the 16th Century!

© Aug 2000 Oscar Falconi, Saratoga CA 95070, U.S.A.

Here we are in May 2004, and we're now receiving many long faxes per day. Not only are they annoying and time-consuming, but they tie up the phone line and use up fax paper.

What to do?

By LAW, every unsolicited fax must have a toll-free number so you can have your fax number removed from their file. It's not well-known, but if a toll-free number is dialed from a pay-phone, then the recipient must pay a fee, ranging from 35¢ to 65¢ to the phone company - much of which goes back to the store sponsoring the phone booth. Well, it's not much, but if we all used a pay-phone to get our numbers removed, maybe these fax-spammers will get the message.

Also, it's very important that you NEVER, EVER, buy anything from these selfish, inconsiderate, fax-spammers. This goes for the hated email-spammers as well. Please, NEVER, EVER, encourage these low-lifes.

© May 2004 Oscar Falconi, Saratoga CA 95070, U.S.A. (links welcomed)

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