Human-Computer Etiquette

etiquette-based soCioteCHniCal desiGn 333

seems like burning down your house to prevent break-ins. Also it is

politically dicult to justify introducing a new charge for services we

already have. A new Internet “toll” would add no new service above

those now available, as e-mail already works without charges.

Finally, making the Internet a eld of prot opens it to corruption.

If senders paid receivers, and each e-mail transferred money, who

would administer the system and set the charge rate? Is an adminis-

tration charge eectively an e-mail tax? If so, who then will “govern”

online e-mail? Spam works because no-charge e-mail is easy, which

is also why the Internet itself works. Its decentralization, with no

one “in charge,” is why the Internet ...