[2513] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Advertising
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen D Crocker)
Fri Mar 13 07:29:12 1992
To: Ken Laws <LAWS@ai.sri.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 12 Mar 92 23:19:10 -0800.
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 07:27:44 -0500
From: Stephen D Crocker <crocker@TIS.COM>
Roughly twenty years ago, when the Arpanet was just beginning, I
proposed a scheme to limit junk mail when the inevitable happened.
This proposal is semi-serious. It won't work as simply as I propose,
but I think there's the germ of the right idea.
Every piece of mail carries a lien against the sender of some
substantial amount -- say 1,000 times the cost of sending the message.
The lien is invocable at will. Anyone who sends junk mail to a large
list is in danger of losing a bundle if the recipients get annoyed and
invoke the lien.
Invoking the lien has to be understood a hostile act, not to be done
casually. If it's invoked in a one-on-one situation, it's likely to
rupture the relationship.
Mailing lists, e.g. com-priv, could be exempt because there's a
different remedy available: simply unsubscribe.
The part I like best about this proposal is the technology makes it
possible to shift the paradigm so there actually could be a financial
exposure for the sender. Whether this is the best way to exploit that
possibility is a good subject for discussion, but I think there's
opportunity to change things in this tightly coupled age.
Steve
