 Aol, Yahoo, And Goodmail: Taxing Email For Fun And Profit |
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 Feb 10 2006, 08:37 PM
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 Bleepin' Conundrum  Group: Global Moderator Posts: 8,373 Joined: 26-April 04 From: 65 miles due East of the "Logic Free Zone", in Md, USA Member No.: 235  |
 Remember the famous email rumor that made the rounds in the1990s: "Congress is trying to tax your Internet connection, write in now!" Well what wasn't true in the 1990s is apparently coming true in 2006, only the beneficiaries won't be Uncle Sam -- they will be Yahoo, AOL, and a company ironically called Goodmail. Yahoo and AOL have announced that they will guarantee access to your email inbox for email senders who pay $.0025 per message. They will override their own spam filters and webbug-strippers, and deliver the mail directly with a "certified" notice. In the process, it is likely that they will treat more of your email as spam, and email you're expecting won't be delivered. This isn't really an anti-spam measure as much as a "pay to speak" measure. In fact, it probably won't diminish spam or phishing at all. Yahoo and AOL are ransoming your email boxes so that they can shake down ordinary people and organizations, whether individuals mailing their local bowling league or political groups communicating with their national memberships. Email being basically free isn't a bug. It's a feature that has driven the digital revolution, allowing groups to scale up from a dozen friends to a hundred people who love knitting to half-a-million concerned citizens without a major bankroll. Spam is a real problem demanding real solutions, but taxing the Internet isn't one of them. EFF urges AOL and Yahoo subscribers and those who communicate with them to tell them that taxing email is not the right way to go. (Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Press releases and EFF announcements & articles may be reproduced individually at will.) -------------------- |
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Feb 11 2006, 10:13 AM
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 Distinguished Member Group: Members Posts: 681 Joined: 4-May 05 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 19,038 |
I don't use AOL or Yahoo or Goodmail... so HA!!!
*ahem* sorry... Wow, they really are keeping their word to tax email. I wonder what will happen when ALL the email servers get taxed? A digital revolution? In fact, the US is losing money to the postal service because of emailing. So, this might be a good thing. -------------------- Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
- Rick Cook I visit this site on and off. If anybody needs to contact me, PM me and I'll be notified by email. |
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Feb 11 2006, 08:28 PM
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 To INSANITY and BEYOND !! Group: Moderator Posts: 7,016 Joined: 10-September 04 From: NJ USA Member No.: 2,608 |
It's more like a bribe . Pay me off and I'll let you bring your unwanted stuff in. Perhaps a bit later we may have the option of paying >50 to reblock what we never wanted. Pretzel logic
-------------------- Can you spare some PC cycles to help FIND A CURE .. BC FOLDING TEAM Click me /info..
ThoughtVent a goodplace to discuss.<<>>>Staying Updated Calendar of Updates. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.... |
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Feb 14 2006, 03:27 PM
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 Bleepin' cat's meow Group: Moderator Posts: 8,524 Joined: 11-January 05 From: Baton Rouge, La. Member No.: 9,323 |
I have a Gmail, Yahoo, and a hotmail account. I use them as the should be used. Crap mail. If a site requires me to provide an email I give one of them. I clear them out once every couple of weeks. If the site does not accept one of them I has a COX.NET crap mail that is set to delete all emails as they are downloaded. Right now I have several hundred spam mails a week slipping thru on my good email account.
--------------------  "2007 & 2008 Windows Shell/User Award" |
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Feb 14 2006, 08:22 PM
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 I can see what you post! Group: Members Posts: 6,302 Joined: 14-February 05 From: Somewhere in North East Ohio Member No.: 12,053 |
I thought e-mail was suppose to be free? Isn't that the point of it?
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Mar 9 2006, 02:34 PM
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 11 Joined: 15-December 05 Member No.: 44,954 |
Part of legoman786's comment was
QUOTE In fact, the US is losing money to the postal service because of emailing. So, this might be a good thing. Sorry legoman786 but for gods sake don't say stuff like that the Bast***s will do it for real,then what next? You got to consider this on a much deeper level. Death & taxes ar certanties in this life but not ever,...NEVER on the Internet. The Internet was developed as a free for the people tool, let it stay a FREE FOR THE PEOPLE TOOL.[u] Avro_1 over & out. |
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Mar 9 2006, 06:17 PM
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 Forum Addict Group: Global Moderator Posts: 18,926 Joined: 11-April 04 From: Chicago, Il. Member No.: 113 |
As I understand it, these companies are going to allow certain (supposedly "good") companies bypass their usual spam filters, and charge them for this "benefit." Some charitable groups have objected to this, because they send E-mails to their lists of contributors; at least one of the E-mail providers has kindly said it will "pay for" these select charitable groups.
What bothers me is that the E-mail provider will determine, for a price, what is actually SPAM and what is "good" SPAM, and which groups are to be considered charitable. I always thought the recipient should choose what mail to receive and what E-mail is SPAM. What also bothers me is that once the large E-mail providers starting charging for some E-mails, they will gradually find a way to charge US for E-mailing. Never let anyone get a foot in the door of internet freedom, or it will change, and change for the worse. Regards, John -------------------- Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent.
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Mar 9 2006, 06:21 PM
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 Bleeping GloDiva Group: Members Posts: 7,479 Joined: 25-April 04 From: As always I'm beside myself ;) Member No.: 228 |
Yes, give them an inch and they'll take a mile.
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Mar 10 2006, 04:29 AM
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 32 Joined: 30-December 05 From: NZ. It's very long and in 2 bits Member No.: 47,495 |
I already pay for e-mail via isp account fee's as I'm sure most of the rest of you do. You dont like what your isp or mail provider is up to then vote with your feet.
-------------------- Your interests (Check Length), Your location (Check Length). What if I dont need to check my length?
Religion has a built-in defense system: anything that questions a belief, no matter how logical the argument is, is the work of "the devil" by the very fact that it makes you question a belief. Don't eat yellow snow. |
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Mar 13 2006, 09:56 AM
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Bleeping GloDiva Group: Members Posts: 7,479 Joined: 25-April 04 From: As always I'm beside myself ;) Member No.: 228 |
QUOTE More sign against AOL's email tax Ground...swell... By John Oates Published Monday 13th March 2006 10:24 GMT The campaign to stop AOL charging to guarantee delivery of emails is growing with more than 500 groups and almost 37,000 people signing up. QUOTE Stop AOL's E-Mail Tax
We wish to express our serious concern with AOL's adoption of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail, which is a threat to the free and open Internet. This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to an "email tax" for every email sent, in return for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters and go directly to AOL members' inboxes. Those who did not pay the "email tax" would increasingly be left behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation. -------------------- |
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Mar 22 2006, 01:42 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 18 Joined: 3-February 06 Member No.: 53,581 |
It appears to me that AOL, in contrast to their ads extolling their commitment to their users, are now offering to become purveyors of spam to anyone who has the cash. I hope those states that laws against spam take AOL to court and levy some hefty fines against them if this plan actually gets implemented.
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Mar 22 2007, 10:15 AM
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 86 Joined: 10-March 07 From: Australia Member No.: 116,663 |
Oh what a wonderful ideas this is to pay for sending emails. Why just think.. the spammers will be charged a few cents by the ISPs to send and the ISPs will receive payment from the spammers by means of a stolen credit card account. Later... GRJ 
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