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.

Comments

[taktix]

Wait! They're trying to privatize the internet! These evil, greedy corporations must be stopped!

In all seriousness, this sounds like the AOL for businesses. The same people who must use AOL to surf ("keyword typers" is the slur I use for such people) are the people who open spam from Nigerian princes, hoping to get rich.

Anyone with half a wit about the internet knows the dangers and employs spam-blockers, anti-virus software, etc.

[Sandy]

At Slashdot they have a template for responding to proposals to end spam, because they're so predictable. In fact, just take this one and treat it as my response to the above.

[ZenMasterThis]

Meh. There are certainly less onerous ways to deal with spam and phishers, like "opt-in" screening and having a little common sense.

[Deus ex Machina]

Love the Simpsons reference.

[Eddy]

Doh, at first I thought it said hummers and I don't mean army trucks... then it got much less interesting.

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

So spam and porn aren't business?