AOL and Yahoo to charge for sending e-mail

[Larwee]

The charges will apply to companies that want to make sure their e-mail is delivered to their customers.

America Online and Yahoo will charge companies from 1/4 of a cent to one cent for each e-mail to recieve preferential treatment.

Senders who do not pay can still send e-mail to AOL and Yahoo e-mail users, but those who pay will receive special treatment. Their e-mail goes straight to users' main mailboxes and they don't have to pass spam filters.

The senders must only send e-mail to people who have agreed to receive e-mail from them or they could be completely blocked.

http://freeinternetpress.com/modules...ticle&sid=5780

[suresk]

Its interesting how the Internet is moving these days. Broadband providers want to do something very similar - charge big websites (such as Google, Yahoo, and others) to deliver content for them. Aren't broadband subscribers paying them to deliver the content already?

Although I can certainly see the practicality of charging a nominal fee per email, I don't know that I like where things are heading.

[Czar]

I imagine this will be a bit of a nightmare for AOL to administer, too. Users who receive VIP emails from spammers will complain that AOL is selling them out, even though that's likely not the case, while those who have trouble receiving legitimate emails will no doubt similarly claim that AOL is deliberately turning up the dials on their spam filter to force companies to become VIP senders.

It definitely seems bizarre. As Spencer mentioned, with email being the killer app of the net, most people are paying ISPs for the privilege to use email anyway. If a pay-for-use fee structure is introduced, people will start to wonder what their monthly fees are supposed to cover.

[Larwee]

Some marketers are very upset and are calling the plan e-mail taxation.

Higher charges for this "certified e-mail system" are being mentioned than at first with talk of charges being between $2.00 and $3.00 per 1000 messages.

Both America Online and Yahoo will make money doing this but they aren't saying much about that and keep talking about how this is going to benefit the users.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/06/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

[Larwee]

There is now a very big protest growing over this plan and a lot of groups that don't often agree with each other are in full agreement about not liking this idea. Petitions have started circulating against this plan.

Organizations against it say "Charities, small businesses, civic organizing groups and even families with mailing lists will have no guarantee that their e-mail will be delivered unless they are willing to pay the 'e-mail tax' to AOL."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Free Press are co-hosting a press teleconference in which they, and others, are to state their very strong opposition to this plan.

Here are a couple good articles about this hot topic

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...rss.technology

http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3587921