Sorry, No Homers

Here's a market-driven way to get rid of spam and, well, the entire rest of the internet.

In the fall, [George] Sidman and his small legion of techmasters will unveil WebLOQ to the public. Designed for Web users fatigued by the never-ending barrage of spam and fearing identity theft, WebLOQ will charge users $9.95 a year to join a privately-run Internet. In return, they'll receive an e-mail account and access to an increasing number of services as long as they abstain from illegal and/or annoying behavior. WebLOQ is unique, Sidman explains, because it will not tolerate spammers, phishers of credit card numbers, or virus spreaders.

The goal is to take people who use the internet for business off the regular internet and away from all the troubles and temptations therein, while allowing them to work and use email. That wouldn't work for most media jobs, of course.