According to American Online spokesman, Nicholas Graham, "Mark it on your calendars." He is referring to the fee-based email system for mass mailers that AOL has threatened in the past. The latest is that AOL will begin charging the fees sometime in the next thirty days.
Vocal protests ranging from political organization to not-for-profit groups to labor unions have not dissuaded AOL from canceling the program. Most have complained that they won't be able to afford the 1/4 to 1 cent per email cost AOL is intending to charge. There are no first amendment rights to be applied here since AOL is not a government entity. However, some groups have threatened to start a boycott of AOL if the fee-based system takes effect.
Article Originally Posted on 2/8/06:
America Online and Yahoo are considering implementation of a service created by Goodmail Systems which charges emailers for the right to send email to their members. The technology used by Goodmail includes an encrypted token which appears in the email to let the user know that the email was sent by a “trusted” source.
There are proponents of the Goodmail system which claim that current consumers don’t trust current mass mailers even when they are playing by the rules. On the other side, critics feel that the technology doesn’t address the current crop of spam since most mass mailers have access to more than enough cash to cover any fees incurred at the rate of ¼ to a full cent per mail.
AOL plans to begin the Goodmail service in the next 30 to 60 days. Yahoo is in the testing phase for the next few months. It seems from one point of view that AOL is claiming that they can reduce spam by charging companies to send more of it. How does that work?
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