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How would this tax affect our operations? As of today, 59 of our 738 members use AOL for their email service. AOL members already have more difficulty receiving our emails because of AOL's spam filtering. (In fact, most of the large email services use similar anti-spam methods, which is why some of AsturianUS.org's emails don't get through to you.) With a two-tier system, AOL will have less incentive to update and maintain their spam controls, meaning that our emails to you will be less likely to arrive or more likely to arrive late.
Ironically, AOL's program would help some spammers. Not all spam is produced by criminals in Russia or China. I get plenty of spam from well-known businesses, like HP. Businesses having trouble with spam filters may be willing to pay AOL so their spam won't have to go through AOL's anti-spam filters.
For more information, you can visit:
http://www.dearaol.com/
El Foro de la emigración astur-americana es un signatorio a la petición que aparece abajo (en inglés solamente).
¿Cómo afectaría este impuesto nuestras operaciones? Desde hoy, 59 de nuestros 738 miembros usan AOL para su servicio de correo electrónico. Los miembros usando AOL ya tienen más dificultad en recibir nuestros correos electrónicos debido a la filtración de spam por AOL. (De hecho, la mayor parte de los servicios de correo electrónico grandes usan métodos similares de antispam, con resulta que algunos correos electrónicos de AsturianUS.org no les llegan.) con un sistema de dos niveles, AOL tendrá menos incentivo para actualizar y mantener sus controles de spam, significando que nuestros correos electrónicos a miembros tendrán menos probabilidad de llegar o más probabilidad de llegar tarde.
Irónicamente, el programa del AOL ayudaría a algúnos que envían spam. No todo del spam es producido por criminales en Rusia o China. Recibo mucho spam de negocios conocidos, como HP. Los negocios que tienen problemas con filtros de spam pueden querer pagar a AOL para que su spam no tendrá que pasar por los filtros antispam del AOL.
Para leer más sobre esta campaña, haga una visita a:
http://www.dearaol.com/
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We wish to express our serious concern with AOL's adoption of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail, which is a threat to the free and open Internet.
This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to an "email tax" for every email sent, in return for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters and go directly to AOL members' inboxes. Those who did not pay the "email tax" would increasingly be left behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation.
AOL's "email tax" is the first step down a slippery slope that will harm the Internet itself. The Internet is a revolutionary force for free speech, civic organizing, and economic innovation precisely because it is open and accessible to all Internet users equally. On a free and open Internet, small ideas can become big ideas overnight. As Internet advocacy groups, charities, non-profits, businesses, civic organizing groups, and email experts, we ask you to reconsider your pay-to-send proposal and to keep the Internet free.
A pay-to-send system won't help the fight against spam - in fact, this plan assumes that spam will continue and that mass mailers will be willing to pay to have their emails bypass spam filters. And non-paying spammers will not reduce the amount of mail they throw at your filters simply because others pay to evade them.
Perversely, the new two-tiered system AOL proposes would actually reward AOL financially for failing to maintain its email service. The chief advantage of paying to send CertifiedEmail is that it can bypass AOL's spam filters. Non-paying customers are being asked to trust that after paid mail goes into effect, AOL will properly maintain its spam filters so only unwanted mail gets thrown away.
But the economic incentives point the other way: The moment AOL switches to a two-tiered Internet where giant emailers pay for preferential service, AOL will face a simple business choice: spend money to keep regular spam filters up-to-date, or make money by neglecting their spam filters and pushing more senders to pay for guaranteed delivery. Poor delivery of mail turns from being a problem that AOL has every incentive to fix to something that could actually make them money if the company ignores it.
The bottom-line is that charging an "email tax" actually gives AOL a financial incentive to degrade email for non-paying senders. This would disrupt the communications of millions who cannot afford to pay your fees-including the non-profits, civic organizations, charities, small businesses, and community mailing lists that have arisen for every topic under the sun and that make email so vital to your subscribers.
And what if other Internet service providers retaliate and start demanding their own ransoms to accept mail from your millions of users? Your company works hard to simplify the Internet. Don't start a surcharge war that will complicate it with tiered services and dozens of middleman fees for every simple act of communication.
We have always been happy working together with you to fight spam and phishing. We have a common enemy in spammers. We are happy to work together to develop open approaches that attack the problem of spam and phishing. But a pay-to-send "certified" system does not help to fight spam. It only serves to make the Internet less free for everyone. We stand together in asking you to reconsider your decision to use CertifiedEmail.
Respectfully,
Over five hundred groups, including the Asturian Migration Forum
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