"Back in the day," most services charged for email by the line. I remember on a few systems (Compuserve being one) they started to let you have the subject line for free. To exploit their generosity, we would type our entire email messages in the subject line. Not very asthetic, but very cheap.
Anyway, the moral of the story is, it used to be a pay-for system and nobody used it. It's free, everyone uses it. If you're gonna charge me for email, why wouldn't I just fax you instead? Even if its long distance, it's still cheap.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Racer X [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 12:38 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: email postage
>
>
> I'm wondering if anyone knows of any sort of protocol or
> system built to
> handle "email postage." I'm of the belief that as long as email is an
> essentially free service, people will always find a way to
> abuse it, and I'd
> like to know if there's any sort of work going on in this
> area, research,
> etc.
>
> Before you ask - no, I don't think the USPS has any business
> charging for
> email, nor any other governmental entity. I'm talking about
> doing this on a
> private, per-host basis, with the possibility of peering agreements,
> pay-as-you-go for email transmission, automated exchange of
> payment info,
> etc.
>
> Just bored at work and looking for something to fool around
> with. I've got
> a feeling QMTP could probably do something with this pretty
> easily. I've no
> idea how you'd be able to integrate MUA's.
>
> shag
> =====
> Judd Bourgeois | CNM Network +1 (805) 520-7170
> Software Architect | 1900 Los Angeles Avenue, 2nd Floor
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Simi Valley, CA 93065
>
> Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
>
>
>
