Re: Boxbe, was e-postage stamps

Hmm. Tipjar's "minimum tip amount" from 1996 is supposed to function as a
prior art defense against potential patent claims, in my e-postage plans.
These people -- the in-demand public person, who needs a new contact filter
rather than having a new contact problem -- certainly look like a
low-hanging fruit.


On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 12:43 PM, John Levine <[email protected]> wrote:



> Esther's spam problem is not like other people's spam problem.  She
> has large numbers of random strangers pitching business plans to her,
> asking her to speak at conferences, and such.  It's all from real
> people sent only to her, but there's little of it she wants to read.
> It has always seemed to me that a $25 or $100 reading fee would lead
> to adverse selection, but we're unlikely ever to know.
>
> I had a very pleasant lunch with Thede Loder, the head guy at Boxbe,
> before it collapsed.  He was entirely aware that C/R sucks, and the
> point of Boxbe was to appeal to people with Esther's problem, or the
> much larger class of people who think they have Esther's problem.  (As
> he noted, there is a significant overlap with venture capitalists,
> which helped funding.)  Boxbe was just what she wanted.
>
> Unfortunately for Thede, he tripped over some patents owned by another
> spam filtering company, the lawsuits drained their cash and they went
> out of business.
>
> Thede is the same guy who invented refundable e-postage as attention
> bonds about a decade ago.  He was surprised when I told him that they
> were the same thing as Phil Raymond's Vanquish, and Phil already had a
> patent on it.
>
> R's,
> John
>
-- 
"When men drink, they get wealthy, they are successful, they win their
lawsuits,
they become happy and help out their friends." -- Aristophanes (well, a
character he wrote)