May I have permission to forward this to another list owner on my lists? Elizabeth Mann At 02:54 PM 2/2/2006, Eric Thomas said. >L-Soft has joined the growing number of companies that protest against >AOL's recent announcement that it will phase out its Enhanced Whitelist >service in June in favour of Goodmail CertifiedEmail, which carries an as >yet unspecified per-message fee. In a nutshell, companies like L-Soft get >on the AOL whitelist by following good e-mail practices, such as cleaning >up dead addresses, making it easy for people to leave mailing lists, and >of course not sending any spam. This is all going to be thrown out the >window and replaced with the payment of hard currency to Goodmail. People >who can afford to pay this fee will have the privilege of reaching AOL >subscribers, others will end up in junk folders. Yahoo is expected to >follow down the same path. > >I have nothing against certification as an additional tool in the fight >against spam. Knowing that message such and such genuinely comes from its >purported sender can help improve the accuracy of your spam filter. I >also understand that certification costs money, unless sponsored by the >government or by volunteers donating their time to the cause. But I think >per-message certification fees make as much sense as per-click SSL >certificate fees. I also find that the "rumoured" rates that have been >mentioned in some of the press articles are totally out of proportion >with the service being provided. The fee is several times what providers >currently charge for the service of hosting the mailing list, removing >dead addresses, making backups, etc. As an illustration, a typical hobby >list would cost on the order of $500-1000 a year. An active list could >cost $10k or more a year. This may not be much for the advertisement >manager of a large company, not when compared to print adverts, but what >about the rest of us? I know L-Soft hosting customers cannot afford the >price increase that would be necessary to cover an identification fee of >five figures PER DAY. > >And for many of us, this identification fee is not even an option. To be >eligible for Goodmail accreditation, you must "have business headquarters >located in the United States or Canada." Foreigners need not bother. You >must also "have at least a 6 month mailing history from [the] IP" address >from which you are sending your newsletter. This of course makes it very >difficult to switch ISPs if you are not satisfied with the one you are >using. A new ISP means a new IP address, and Goodmail will then shut you >down for "at least 6 months." A nice 'protection' plan for the ISP, but a >disaster for customers. > >Anyway, here is a link to our full press release, which has been sent to >major publications today. And I want to salute the courage of the >executives at hosting-only companies that have spoken up and protested, >knowing full well that they would go out of business in a matter of >months were their access to AOL and Yahoo mailboxes to be cut off in >retaliation. In the post-Enron era, this kind of corporate courage is >very rare indeed. I stand on much firmer ground, as hosting is only a >side activity at L-Soft, but I can still imagine what must have gone >through their mind before they hit the send button. > >http://www.lsoft.com/news/aol-goodmail.asp > > Eric