Edited by author 08-20-2002 06:00 PM
>So every time anyone on the Internet wants to send a non-personal email to anyone else, s/he'll have to PAY HABEAS in order to be kept out of spam filters? Habeas wants to collect a royalty on every single non-personal email sent?

I don't read it that way. The Habeas system provides a means for an individual or business to positively state that their message meets some criteria [that it's a "Habeas Compliant Message" - http://www.habeas.com/faq/index.htm#2.2]. It's like a Good Housekeeping Seal for email.

If I, as an business, want to assert that my mailings meet that standard, I pony up for the license and add the headers. If don't pony up and use it anyways, I get sued. If I pony up and break the terms, I get sued.

Just like the Good Housekeeping Seal. If I want to put the GHS on my product, I have to advertise in GH and submit my product for testing in their labs.

If I don't do that and I put the GHS on my product, I get sued. If I do that, then put the GHS on some other unapproved widget, I get sued.

As a widget manufacturer, I have no obligation to put the GHS on any product I want to sell. Similarly, if I want to send non-personal email, I have no obligation to pay Habeas anything. I only pay them if their stamp of approval is something I think will provide value to me.

A grocery store could decide to stock only products that carry the GHS, but their stock would be very limited. Similarly, an ISP could decide to pass only email bearing the Habeas mark, but they'd be dumping almost everything currently. I don't think that's really likely.