So - once again AOL and Yahoo are out to screw the consumer. Oh - they're not going to charge consumers to send e-mails - only businesses - and then only as an option. Thing is - the hucksters that sign on for this will be able to SEND E-MAILS DIRECTLY TO MAILBOXES - BY-PASSING SPAM FILTERS. The YO-YOs responsible for this stroke of genius say that - by doing so - it will eliminate spam since spammers won't pay. Wanna bet? Wanna bet how long it will take for the greed-grapplers to decide that charging everybody a fee is a really cool idea?

There is perhaps one ray of light. There will always be providers like Google & others who will take advantage of the situation by maintaining their free e-mail and raking in stock boosting revenue from advertisers - and the same folk who provide open source will surely take up the gauntlet. One hopes.