Tom,
I'm 99.9999% sure this is total bunk. Seen this sort of Urban Legand
about 100 times over the last 10 years. A couple of years ago it even
got so bad that the news media covered it. Upshot is that the US and
State governments has no authority, zero, to regulate email. Yes, it
could pass a tax on ISP fees, but per email? Technically this might be
possible, but practically speaking isn't. The tip off that this is yet
another fake is:
"Federal Bill 602P"
As far as I am aware of, there is no such thing as a "Federal Bill".
There is either a House or Senate Bill, each of which is clearly labled
as such and has like "S602" or "HR602". If anybody can produce a copy of
this alledged Bill, then I will gladly print out this email and eat it.
Without salt :-)
Steve
>Guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P
>5-cents per E-mail
>sent. It figures! No more free E-mail! We knew
>this was coming!!
>Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to
>charge a 5-cent charge on
>every delivered E-mail. Please read the following
>carefully if you
>intend
>to stay online and continue using E-mail. The last
>few months have
>revealed
>an alarming trend in the Government of the United
>States attempting to
>quietly push through legislation that will affect
>our use of the Internet.
>Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service
>will be attempting to
>bill E-mail users out of "alternative postage
>fees". Bill 602P will
>permit
>the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent
>surcharge on every e-mail
>delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers
>at source. The consumer
>would then be billed in turn by the ISP.
>Washington DC lawyer Richard Stepp is working
>without pay to prevent this
>legislation from becoming law. The US Postal
>Service is claiming lost
>revenue, due to the proliferation of E-mail, is
>costing nearly
>$230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have
>noticed their recent ad
>campaign: "There is nothing like a letter."
>Since the average person received about 10 pieces
>of E-mail per day in
>1998,
>the cost of the typical individual would be an
>additional 50 cents a day -
>or
>over $180 per year - above and beyond their regular
>Internet costs.
>Note that this would be money paid directly to the
>US Postal Service for a
>service they do not even provide. The whole point
>of the Internet is
>democracy and non-interference. You are already
>paying an exorbitant price
>for snail mail because of bureaucratic
>inefficiency. It currently takes
>up
>to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from coast
>to coast. If the US
>Postal
>Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will
>mark the end of the
>"free"
>Internet in the United States.
>Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has
>even suggested a
>"$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet
>service" above and beyond the
>governments proposed E-mail charges. Note that most
>of the major
>newspapers
>have ignored the story the only exception being the
> Washingtonian which
>called the idea of E-mail surcharge "a useful
>concept who's time has come"
>(March 6th,1999 Editorial).
> Do
>not sit by and watch your freedom
>erode away!
>Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and
>tell all your friends and
>relatives to write their congressional
>representative and say "NO" to Bill
>602P.
>It will only take a few moments of your time and
>could very well be
>instrumental in killing a bill we do not want.
> PLEASE
>FORWARD!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 07 2001 - 00:36:59 PST