In an announcement sure to set off another round of baseless bellyaching, Goodmail Systems has convinced four more major ISPs to offer premium e-mail delivery — meaning paid passage around voracious spam filters for bulk senders who want reliable delivery.
According to Associated Press:
In deals expected to be announced Thursday, Goodmail Systems Inc. is expanding its CertifiedEmail program to Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc.’s Road Runner and Verizon Communications Inc. Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO – news) and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL became inaugural participants last year.
Individuals, businesses and organizations will be able to continue sending messages for free, but they risk finding those missives caught in increasingly aggressive spam filters.
When Goodmail introduced the service early last year there was explosion of indignation around the Internet led by the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Moveon.org that likened CertifiedEmail to a tax. (We’re seeking fresh comment from EFF.) As we wrote at the time:
Any time both liberal and conservative political activists are aligned against big business on a particular issue, you can be pretty gosh-darn sure the protesters have a legitimate beef.
Except when they don’t.
Such is the case with a gathering crusade against plans by AOL and Yahoo to offer Goodmail’s fee-based CertifiedEmail, a premium delivery service designed to help legitimate bulk senders get their messages through to their intended targets.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, MoveOn.org and RightMarch.com will be front and center today trumpeting a diverse coalition of political and business groups the organizers say are intent on getting AOL and Yahoo to abandon their plans. You can read all of the loopy scare-mongering at MoveOn’s Web site under the ludicrous headline: “Stop AOL’s E-mail Tax.”
Goodmail did not abandon its plans, and nothing appears likely to stop AOL and the others from offering bulk e-mail senders the option of paying for more reliable delivery. Those senders who don’t believe its worth the money — or object on philosophical grounds — may simply opt for today’s standard service.
That’s still free.
