Probably my favorite writer on the net is the level headed and brilliant Paul Myers. If you don't read his comments, you should. As always, Paul clearly expounded the problem being created by Microsoft and its supposed protection of hotmail accounts:

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Microsoft has announced it will be using the "Bonded Sender Program" from IronPort on its MSN and Hotmail email systems.

The bonded sender concept is pretty simple. Short form: You put in money up front to show that you're a good guy, email-wise. Your mail gets through, unless you get complaints that you're spamming. If that happens, you lose the money and get blocked.

Sounds pretty straight forward, yes?

No.

Unfortunately, like so many things in life, it's far from being as uncomplicated as the people promoting it would have you believe.

The CNN article announcing this gives the very clear impression that participation in the Bonded Sender Program (BSP) will guarantee that one's mail gets delivered.

Interesting.

As of February 4th of this year, MSN/Hotmail's policy was that participation in the Bonded Sender Program would not guarantee delivery of email. (See the email from MS in a previous entry.)

Why the change?

Well, it could simply be that they were testing the system, and not making any guarantees until they saw the results. That would make sense.

It could also be that this whole rather large PR effort is a run-up to MS acquiring IronPort. That, too, is plausible.

For all we know, it could be both.

Either way, it's not a comforting prospect for smaller email publishers.

"They're blocking spam. What's the problem?

Good question.

They will NOT only be blocking spam.

Even assuming they don't require ALL email publishers to join the program to get their mail delivered, they'll be blocking a lot of legitimate mail. They already are, and it's a safe bet that they're not going to make their filters LESS effective because of this move.

It's likely that, at a minimum, they're going to be making the content filters they use much stricter. That will mean a much higher number of legitimate emails not being delivered than is the case right now.

If you're a mailer, that means you have a much harder time getting mail through to your subscribers and customers.

If you're a subscriber using MSN/Hotmail's services, you're going to lose a lot of the mail you've requested, and even paid for.

That's the best case scenario.

Worst case?

MSN/Hotmail decides that they're only accepting solicited bulk email from people who pay their extor... err... bonding fee.

Then they tighten up their filters to block even more mail. That's likely to affect such trivial things as paid content, emailed receipts, domain registration notices, normal 1:1 business email, and anything else that might sound like it involves money, health-related issues, or any other content they deem to be too close to topics that are commonly found in spam.

I have a theory on this. Of course.

Mr Gates recently spoke to a high-level group in Switzerland, endorsing the ridiculous idea of e-Postage. Microsoft and others are working on ideas to make this thoroughly discredited approach somehow workable.

Do I believe that they're doing this out of the goodness of their hearts?

Hell no.

They want a piece of each "stamp" sold.

I might believe that some other organization could conceivably be working on something like this with genuine concern for the future of the email system.

Not Microsoft. Their history is not one to encourage such a generous belief.

Microsoft does not compete in the Internet arena on the basis of price and performance. They compete on the basis of control of the desktop, clever marketing campaigns, and a process of buying out their competitors and burying their technologies.

I'm a businessman. I'm in favor of any company making as large a profit as they can ethically make. I am not so enthused about allowing a company with such a long and established history of market strong-arming to have any control over the email delivery system.

If the Bonded Sender Program reaches sufficient market penetration, I believe it's certain to create side-effects that will do serious damage to most small publishers.

Including MSN/Hotmail telling them to get bonded or get lost.

IronPort has already pointed this out as a very real possibility. And let's not forget that the folks who run IronPort are ex-employees of previous Microsoft acquisitions. It's unlikely they'd mention such a possibility publicly out of pure speculation.

MS is downplaying that option, but has made it abundantly clear that those not participating in the BSP will, at the minimum, face substantially tougher filtering. Requested mail or not.

If MS takes over the Bonded Sender Program, I don't for an instant believe that they'll hesitate to make participation mandatory for those mailers sending to their customers. I wouldn't be much surprised to see a lot of the other service providers who use it jumping on that same train.

In that case, you can pretty much forget about using email for mailing many of your subscribers, your customers, your partners... nearly any business usage. And yes, this does apply to personal business correspondence. And yes, to transactional messages, like receipts and product delivery.

If you don't believe that, re-read what happened with SiteSell and MSN/Hotmail.

This isn't about stopping spam. It's about creating a revenue stream. One in the form of e-Postage, snuck in through the side door.

If you're a business sender of mail, I doubt that Microsoft or Ironport really give a damn about the consequences to you, unless you're big enough to afford their bondage fees. The only way you might get their attention is to simply start refusing orders from MSN/Hotmail customers.

Incidentally, that may eventually be the only ethical response.

After all, if you can't guarantee that you can properly communicate with your customers regarding their orders, or deliver the material they subscribed for, it may be unwise to accept those orders and subscriptions.

If you're an MSN/Hotmail customer, or a customer of any of the other companies that use Bonded Sender, you have a bit more leverage. Not much, but a bit.

If you enjoy being able to get the mail you requested, or if you're concerned about your business mail or any email subscriptions being refused, let them know.

Preferably by telephone.

Don't expect too much warning or be too surprised if they start dropping your mail without even bouncing it to let the merchants or publishers that sent it know. That's what happened with SiteSell and MSN/Hotmail, after all.

My advice: At the very least, do not use any service that employs the Bonded Sender program for any type of business email. Not if you have any concern for your customer's or your business.

And keep your eyes open. It's going to get worse yet.

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To read the original on Paul's blog, go here:

http://www.talkbiz.net/ramblings/weblog.php