[ih] Email reliability

[Bill Woodcock]

> On Jan 15, 2024, at 01:39, John Gilmore via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> The only reason that Google and Yahoo have any power to impose this
> month's evolution in (enforcement of) email standards, is because the
> formerly widely federated email service is now dominated by a small
> number of huge companies.  Particularly when acting in concert (in
> restraint of trade?), they can afford to say "screw you and your
> previous email standards, if you want to communicate with the billions
> of users whose communications we hold captive @gmail.com or @yahoo.com,
> you will have to do exactly what we say."

Ultimately, though, they’re not trying to get anyone else to do what they say, they’re trying to get everyone else to give up on trying to reach their arbitrarily moving goalposts.

I think the only real question is whether their ultimate plan is to battle it out between them, once they’ve destroyed email for everyone else, or whether they’re planning to remain a duopoly, so that they can pretend that there’s competition.

                                -Bill