* One reader's thoughts on why pay-per-e-mail schemes will fail
A reader of my column offered the following argument against a pay-per-e-mail system:
“[Pay-per-e-mail schemes] work very well with surface mail, telephone and fax services, but I really can’t see them working well with e-mail. There are several reasons why the system is unlikely to work:
1. Unlike other communications services, the infrastructure is not owned and regulated by anyone. There are no ‘carriers’ required; only an Internet connection and some software. In order for a pay-per-e-mail system to work, everyone would need to make some changes to their e-mail systems. Note that this means ‘everyone’, including all of those people on operating systems and applications that are either no longer supported or in-house developed. Given that there are still a huge number of unsecured mail servers out there despite the patches and security settings available, I doubt whether everyone will apply changes to their e-mail systems for something that is deemed even less important than security. (sigh.)
2. A pay-per-e-mail system implies an international common standard. Market forces dictate that international common standards in computing systems just don’t exist, with good examples of this being:
* What is the international common standard for e-mail encryption?
* Is HTML or text the international common mail standard?
* What is the international common instant messaging interchange standard?
* Is the Internet applet standard Java or .Net?
* What are the international calendaring and scheduling standards (and does anyone actually use these standards)?
3. There are a lot of unanswered questions relating to the proposed system: How are fees going to be collected and by whom; who will decide what the revenue is to be used for; how are e-mail systems going to check that fees have been paid; what happens to ‘dead’ e-mails when a sender unknowingly exceeds their limit (and who will accept liability for undelivered e-mails); how do we prevent spammers from hijacking legitimate, paid-for e-mail accounts and sending their spam through them?
With all the odds stacked against it, while a pay-per-e-mail system looks great on paper, the truth is that it just isn’t going to happen.”
Many thanks to the individual who provided this very cogent argument against pay-per-e-mail. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this argument.
