Lindsay Haisley writes: > Perhaps the payment-autentication system could be developed in the > context of a distributed database resembling that used for DNS, or more > like DNSSEC, perhaps.
I don't deny that technologically you could do this, but the question remains: who would actually pay? Again, assuming that traffic patterns stay the same, this is all very nice for AOL, which would have a substantial positive balance of payments. But it would suck rotten eggs for open source projects, whose primary interaction with the mail system is to host mailing lists that on average must have tiny inward flow and significant outward flow. Will traffic patterns stay the same? I think not. If AOL refuses mail without postage, delivery from my lists (not to mention from listmaster) to @aol.com addresses will stop. They can try to bill me, in which case they have no legal way to enforce since I haven't negotiated a contract with them. And I will simply unsubscribe all existing AOL addresses and bar them from subscribing in the future. I don't know what will happen to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and other freemail services. ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3 Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org Security Policy: http://wiki.list.org/x/QIA9
