CAN the warm glow of altruism defeat the cold selfishness of spammers? The project, developed by Yahoo Research, revives the idea of charging to send email, but with a twist. Users will buy “stamps” to attach to their emails, with the proceeds going to a charity that will be named on your posts (see “Charitable donations could deter email spammers”). But not everyone will want to receive emails from do-gooders, especially correspondents who may disagree with your choice of good cause. Let’s hope we don’t end up trading one kind of spam for another.
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from 51¶¯Âþ
Explore the latest news, articles and features

Health
The mysterious reason why women get hotter from age 18 to 42
51¶¯Âþ

Comment
This is the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century
Culture

Comment
Shiver me timbers: Do we have to worry about space pirates now?
Regulars

Life
PMOS shows us why many scientific terms need to be renamed
Leader
Popular articles
Trending 51¶¯Âþ articles
1
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
2
Mystery of the ancient giant stone jars of Laos may have been solved
3
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
4
We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
5
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
6
After news about Oliver Sacks's "lies", we revisit his best-loved book
7
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
8
Melting of Greenland ice sheet could release methane 'fire ice'
9
CAR T-cell therapy bolstered by stiffening up cancer cells first
10
The mysterious reason why women get hotter from age 18 to 42