They can only do this for a federal agency. but not
for a private company. the us postal service has been
operating as a private company for years now. this
will be hard to do.
--- Paul Bullerman <hemikota@home.com> wrote:
> 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!
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:02:31 EDT