Just received this this morning. Don't know about the validity of it,
but I have heard something like this before.
Chuck Robbins
'99 Sport v6 5spd 2wd RC
http://www.members.home.com/clrobbins
NO MORE FREE E-MAIL..... Dated 4 Jan 00
>
> CNN has reported that within the next two weeks Congress is going to
> vote on allowing telephone companies to CHARGE A TOLL FEE for
> Internet access.
>
> Translation: Every time we send a long distance e-mail we will
> receive
> a
> long
> distance charge. This will get costly. Please visit the following
> web
> site
> and file a complaint. Complain to your Congressperson. We can't
> allow
> this
> to pass! The following address will allow you to send an e-mail on
> this
> subject DIRECTLY to your Congressperson.
>
> <http://www.house.gov/writerep>
>
> Pass this on to your friends. It is urgent. I hope all of you will
> pass
> this on to all your friends and family. We should ALL have an
> interest
> in
> this one.
>
> WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
>
> IN ADDITION, 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 your use of the Internet. Under
> proposed
> legislation the US Postal Service will be attempting to bilk email
> users
> out of alternate postage fees. " Bill 602P will permit the Federal
> Govt. to
> charge a 5 cent surcharge on every email delivered, by billing
> Internet
> Service Providers at source. The consumer would then be billed in
> turn
> by
> the ISP.
>
> Washington D.C. lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to
> prevent
> this legislation from becoming law. The U.S. Postal Service is
> claiming
> that lost revenue due to the proliferation of e-mail costing early
> $230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed their recent
> ad
> campaign "There is nothing like a letter." Since the average citizen
> received about 10 pieces of email per day in 1998, the cost to the
> typical
> individual would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over $180
> dollars
> per
> year, above and beyond their regular Internet costs.
>
> Note that this would be money paid directly to the U.S. Postal
> Service
> for a service they do not even provide. The whole point of the
> Internet
> is
> democracy and noninterference. If the federal government is permitted
> to
> tamper with our liberties by adding a surcharge to email, who knows
> where it
> will end. 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 New York to Buffalo. If the U.S. Postal Service
> is
> allowed to tinker with email, it will mark the end of the "free"
> Internet in
> the United States.
>
> One congressman, Tony Schnell, has even suggested a "twenty to forty
> dollar per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond
> the government's proposed email charges.
>
> Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story, the
> only
> exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of email
> surcharge
> "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th,1999) Editorial.
>
> Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away! Send this e-mail to
> EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to
> write
> to their Congressman 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 don't want.
>
> PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO USES EMAIL REMEMBER THESE ARE
> TWO
> SEPARATE ISSUES THAT EFFECT ALL OF US ONLINE.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:48:54 EDT