** HOAX ** HOAX ** HOAX ** HOAX ** HOAX ** HOAX ** HOAX **
Synopsis The United States Congress is considering a 5 cent tax on email.
See the warnings here.
More recent versions of the hoax have added on a warning about that Congress
is about to pass legislation allowing telephone companies to charge toll
fees for Internet access.
Is it true? No. It is a hoax.
Why? Bill 602P does not exist.
'602P' is not a valid name for a Congressional bill. Bills in the House of
Representative are prefaced with 'H.R.'. Bills in the Senate are prefaced
with 'S.'
Congressman Tony Schnell does not exist.
Lawyer Richard Stepp does not exist.
The law firm of 'Berger, Stepp and Gorman' does not exist.
There is no Concorde Street in Vienna, Virginia.
As for per-minute charges for Internet access, the FCC, not the United
States Congress, considered proposals to allow them but rejected the
proposals in February 1999. The FCC says:
Thus, the manner in which consumers pay for Internet access is not before
the Commission and the Commission repeatedly has stated that it will not
change the manner in which consumers obtain and pay for Internet access.
Rumors to the contrary persist, however, and the FCC has received hundreds
of thousands of e-mails on the subject over the last two years.
When? April 1999
Comments This hoax started life as a bill supposedly being considered in
Canada (and no, it is not true there either). Someone changed all the
Canadian references to American references and yet another Internet hoax was
born.
Recently variations have appeared that include warnings about toll fees for
Internet access.
See also Rebuttals
Congress to Block Imaginary Internet Tax Bill from the Washington Post
E-mail Rumor Completely Untrue from the United States Postal Service
E-mail Tax Hoax from the US Department of Energy's Computer Incident
Advisory Capability
No Consumer Per-Minute Charges to Access ISPs from the Federal
Communications Commission
Other commentaries
U.S Postal Tax on Email? from About.com
A Long Pay From Home from the Urban Legends Reference Pages
Ron
00 PB SLT QC 4X2 5.9 46RE 3.92 LSD
For modifications see my DML Profile (URL follows)
http://www.twistedbits.net/WWWProfile/dakota/Kw9pV1EkFeOYY
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet.net
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@buffnet.net]On Behalf Of Paul Bullerman
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 4:17 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: If this bill gets passed....good bye DML.
ALSO: What implications would this have for AIM???
Subject: New Bill
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 n 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-ail
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
&nbs! p; 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!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:02:28 EDT