[10447] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: bill to insure flat rate Internet email pricing (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James Love)
Wed Feb 23 14:04:55 1994
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 13:52:28 -0500 (EST)
From: James Love <love@essential.org>
To: welch@oar.net
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199402231830.NAA00875@spridel.oar.net>
On Wed, 23 Feb 1994 welch@oar.net wrote:
> An important feature of this is the requirement that the
> Internet service include a FLAT RATE service for electronic mail
> sent to and from non-commercial Internet discussion groups and
> lists.
>
> How exactly are you proposing this be implemented? Should the service
> providers keep a list of all the non-commercial mailing lists and
> compare headers on every mail message that comes in? The computational
> resources for doing this are incredible, and the list-of-lists keeps
> growing with every release. Besides, not all mailing lists mark their
> headers.
I don't think that you have exhausted the range of possiblities
here. But the methods don't have to be so difficult. Suppose, for
example, that someone simply added something to an address such as
via.noncom, and that was sent under the flat rate pricing system. It is
not neccessary to try to disassemble messages, read headers or addresses,
or anything else. for all its problems, the NSF AUP did work at a fairly
low cost (even if you support its demise).
> If non-commercial mail is free then messages from
> commerce-related mailing lists will be charged a whole lot more to cover
> costs. Do you really want to pay $10 for every message on com-priv? Are
Hell, com-priv would qualify, since it is a non-commerical list.
com-priv doesn't cost anything to receive, and it is not organized to
sell anything, except ideas. the fact that psi is commerical is
irrelevant, since the service is a non-commerical service.
> you proposing this with the hidden agenda that all email will be free,
> since the computational costs of charging will be greater than it'll be
> worth?
No, flat rate pricing isn't free, last time we paid our providers
bill anyway.
jamie
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James Love, Taxpayer Assets Project; internet: love@essential.org
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176
12 Church Road, Ardmore, PA 19003; v. 215/658-0880; f. 215/649-4066
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