Ok, so, tomorrow (Monday 5/14) new postage rates and rules go into effect. First class mail increases from 39 cents to 41 cents. Annoying, but probably no biggie for the average person. USPS is also introducing the new "forever stamp" -- a stamp that will continue to be good regardless of future rate increases. Kind of clever, don't you think?
But wait, there's more! Apparently a bunch of rate rules are also changing, such as about the size and shape and thickness of envelopes. Is this a good thing? If this CNN.com article is any indication, then I would say "yes, it is a good thing!".
What am I talking about? Well, it appears that the primary groups complaining about the changes in the postage rules are direct mail companies. You know, the predecessors to email spam -- the original mailbox stuffers. It seems that these new rules stand to break their economic models. This is great! If true, it could potentially mean much less junk mail in my mailbox. Oh, if only one could have such an audacious dream. :)
Now, one might logically think "hey, if that'll work for direct mail, why not for spam, too?" Schneier recently blogged about spam defense economics. Basically, I think it comes down to a number of problems with the way mail currently works. First, mail is not currently based on a fee-based structure (outside of paying for one's Internet connection). Second, there's no reliable way to track senders, which would make accountability very difficult. Third, increasing the value of compromising a sender account would not be easily compensated for by current email systems, where security is not always a top concern (e.g., SMTP and POP3 are cleartext protocols by default).
Nonetheless, it's somewhat exciting to think that at least traditional junk mail may be negatively impacted by these new rules. But fear not -- the direct mail companies will almost certainly adapt and rise to the occasion.
