Email Postage Stamps Coming … Now

This is a good idea…

Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a
postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be
delivered to many of their customers.

America Online and Yahoo, two of the world’s largest providers of
e-mail accounts, are about to start using a controversial system that
gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from
1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must
contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk
being blocked entirely.

 
The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate
mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other
scourges that plague users of their services. The two companies also
stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is
widely adopted.