Comment Articles

Sticking stamps on spam

Tags:
Stamp,
Pay,
Fee,
Charge

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 03 Feb 2004 12:45 GMT

Maybe I'd do this for charity -- send me your questions and I'll automatically donate the money to the Red Cross (which will then waste it a la 9/11). OK, bad example, but there's a women's shelter in my adopted hometown that really does need the support.

Of course, administering this will be a mess. Dealing with zillions of micropayments going to just about everyone can't be easy or fun. And that's where I think Bill's idea is going to run into a snag. It's almost like creating a state-run economy.

Better, I think, to do what we already do for communication: charge postage. This is much easier than Bill's plan and, while not as certain a way to deal with spam, could probably accomplish an awful lot toward easing the strain on the world's inboxes.

If you wanted to send more than X amount of email (per day, week, month, at a time, or whatever), you'd have to pay for it on a per-message basis. I don't know what the fee would be, but it would be "appropriate" to the task of stopping spam without making it impossible to send legitimate, commercial email.

The money from this postage fee would be collected, perhaps at the ISP level, and would be used to fund the operation of the Internet. Or perhaps to make the Internet available to individuals or organisations that might otherwise have a hard time paying for their connectivity.

Speaking of which, Bill also announced the creation of a $1bn (£0.6bn) Microsoft fund that the United Nations will use to bring technology to underserved nations, starting with Egypt, Mozambique, and Morocco.

Since I know Bill's minions read this column and will give him a copy, I want to mention that I've noticed the recent news stories in which he has reiterated his intention of giving his vast fortune away (save a relatively paltry $10m or so for each of his children).

I don't want to portray Bill as a glassy-eyed idealist, because he's as hard-driving and tough as they come. But I've said for a long time -- and Bill continues to prove -- that he's not in this for the money. Bill has a vision for a better world -- both through technology and good old-fashioned philanthropy. And that -- not the bucks or even the power -- is what I believe really drives him.

Wiping out spam -- which I think is going to take more than two years, FYI -- is just a part of Bill Gates' plan for a better world. And while I don't like everything he (and Microsoft) does, and while I'm suspicious of the plan's efficacy, I do respect the goal.