Stamping Out Spam?
Would you pay a penny for every e-mail you send? If so, then Yahoo! is working on something that will be right up your alley.
The system, developed by a company called Goodmail, uses a coded string in each e-mail as a sort of electronic postage stamp. Senders are charged for every message, regardless of whether it is opened. Such a charge would quickly add up for the millions of e-mails the big spammers send each day, likely driving them out of business.
Bill Gates is on board, though he didn’t specifically back the Goodmail system. No doubt he wants a different company to cash in from the costs associated with the software upgrades needed to retrofit the countless mail servers on the Internet, to say nothing of collecting the ongoing fees from running an operation to validate the codes.
Let’s hope they don’t get their chance, because Gates, Goodmail and the rest misunderstand the nature of the problem they’re trying to correct. A Yahoo manager best illustrates this clueness when he opines: “The fundamental problem with spam is there is not enough friction in sending e-mail.” “Friction” is a buzzword, and like all buzzwords should serve as a warning of a simplistic thinking.
Consider that what this manager proposes is no less than the hobbling of a quick, seamless global communication system by saddling it with technology that is untested, patented and proprietary. For example, the e-postage idea has substantial currency complications (What is a penny in yen? Can I use servers in other countries if they’re cheaper?) but even more worrying are the potential security flaws: what happens when nefarious parties try a DDoS attack against the postage server? Worse, what if the next MyDoom virus manages to take over PCs and send thousands of messages, leaving the owner on the hook for the expense?
E-postage will not solve these problems, as Yahoo! and the others will well recognize once their vision is no longer clouded by dollar signs. Smarter solutions exist, and I’ll discuss a leading one in my next post.