Subject: [Asrg] Re: E-postage problems...

From: Jim Witte <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 18:45:04 -0500

>> Howsabout the whole damned phone system? Isn't that essentially a
>> "micropayments" system in many aspects?
> In some, yes, in others, no.  It differs from e-mail in that it's a 
> closed
> system, with relatively few players, rather stringent barriers to entry

   One big difference I see is that with the phone system, you can only 
make one call at a time.  With email, you can (continuing with the 
phone/email analogy), make thousands of calls at a time.  Yes, you have 
"boiler-room" situations that generate "phone spam", but the cost to 
the boiler-room operator is high, and they have to pay people to staff 
them (or go illegal..)

   And on the receiving end, there is a limit to how many junk-calls I 
can receive (24 hours in a day, and I'm going to cancel my phone 
service or complain to my Congressperson long before that limit is 
reached).  With email, there is a similar limit (size of my inbox), but 
that is still enough for a couple hundred spam messages.  (I'm not sure 
that last argument really holds water, but maybe it does)

Jim Witte
[email-masked]
Indiana University CS

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