submitted by Mariner
Why Bill Gates' antispam plan won't work
By David Coursey:
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk

News flash from Davos, Switzerland: The end of spam is near! And it's going to come, Bill Gates predicted at the World Economic Forum, because we're going to make it unprofitable to send. Taken another way: Accepting unsolicited commerical e-mail could become a small source of added income for us all.

Two years from now, spam will be solved, Gates reportedly told a select group of the already select group that gathers each year in Switzerland to do what the rich and powerful do, which I think is plan to become even richer and more powerful (doubtless at our expense).

THINK ABOUT IT: If Bill Gates has his way (as is so often the case), each of us would establish a price for accepting uninvited e-mail. Thus a company sending an e-mail campaign might have 50 cents at risk for each of a million e-mails being sent, or $500,000 total. I bet that would make someone think before pressing the send button.

Of course, people and companies in our contact lists would be able to send for free as might certain other entities. And, of course, we'd be free to not accept the money if the e-mail was welcome.

We'd have to work out a whole etiquette for this. For example, would it be rude to collect the 50 cents from an old high school friend I didn't really want to hear from? Or will some of us set up toll-free e-mail addresses, the same way we have toll-free telephone numbers? Would I ever read my toll-free inbox? Depends. ..................................

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