DearAOL: You go, girl! DearEFF: WTF?

EFF Fundraiser: "Email -- Should the Sender Pay?", a debate, Thursday April 20th at the Roxie Film Center, San Francisco

In light of AOL's adopting a "certified" email system, EFF is hosting a debate on the future of email. With distinguished entrepreneur Mitch Kapor moderating, EFF Activist Coordinator Danny O'Brien and renowned tech expert Esther Dyson will discuss the potential consequences if people have to pay to send email. Would the Internet deteriorate as a platform for free speech? Would spam or phishing decline?

I'm disappointed with the EFF's participation in the DearAOL whiny-letter-campaign against the AOL/GoodMail sender-pays anti-spam initiative. There are plenty of big threats to our online freedoms; a private experiment in using micropayment postage to deter spam shouldn't rate for any of the EFF's limited attention. So I'll be attending this debate, curious as to how the EFF got enlisted in such a dubious campaign.

A version of Esther Dyson's case for trying sender-pays:

Esther Dyson in the NYTimes: You've Got Goodmail

I also go over some of the reasons I support email postage as a worthwhile tactic against spam in comments at EFF Chairmain Brad Templeton's blog.

Technorati Tags: eff, aol, spam, goodmail, debates, epostage, sender pays, antispam

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