If Goodmail enforces its TOS, any spammers that sign up will get dropped once the complaints start coming in, and AOL will not be making money off the spam.

So basically, the argument boils down to the assumption that Goodmail will either change or not enforce its terms of service and water down any advantage its tokens have as a non-spam sign, leading to complaints from end users who receive more spam, then go to other ISPs, resulting in a net loss of income for AOL. This is like assuming a security company is going to get in bed with bank robbers. Once someone notices that the banks you guard get robbed more often, your credibility — and your business — is shot. Of course, businesses do stupider things all the time, so who knows?

Disclosure: I’m a member of the EFF, but I disagree with the official position on this one. I don’t work for AOL or Yahoo, but I do manage the spam filters for a small ISP (and no, we’re not likely to sign up with Goodmail anytime soon). You might find it surprising, but while there’s plenty of griping about AOL’s treatment of incoming mail in general, the anti-spam community as a whole (or at least the lists and sites that I read) doesn’t seem to be up in arms over the Goodmail deal.

How do you explain what’s really going on to people who don’t want to listen?