I was wondering, if one AOL subscriber sends email to another AOL
subscriber, will AOL have to pay the "certified Goodmail" fee to
Goodmail?  Or do they have a special deal to avoid that?

Or, lets say both AOL and Yahoo go with the Goodmail deal.  Will AOL have
to pay Goodmail a fee for sending email to Yahoo, and vice versa? Or is
there some deal where email between AOL and Yahoo (and anyone else who
signs up), is exempt, while anyone else has to pay the fee?

I'm curious as I can't imagine AOL and Yahoo agreeing to pay the fees to
Goodmail.  But, if they don't, wouldn't that fall afoul of federal, maybe
local, "restraint of trade" regulations, or something similar?

My wife observed this weekend that if Goodmail is going to be charging
for delivery of email, it might well put them in the category of "common
carrier" (like the phone companies), hence liable to federal and maybe
local taxation as such.  Comments on that?

Douglas Winship   [log in to unmask]