Re: VOTE NO ON Bill 602

[Richard Wimberly <wimberly...>]

Hoax see: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html#emailtax


E-mail Tax Hoax

May 1999 

Here's a rewrite of the internet charge hoax.  

This one includes a disclaimer by 'The Washingtonian' at
http://www.washingtonian.com/about/emailhoax.html


********
Dear Internet Subscriber: 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 your use
of the Internet. Under proposed legislation (Bill 602P) the U.S. Postal
service will be attempting to bilk email users out of "alternative
postage fees". Bill 602P will permit the Federal Govt. to charge 5 cents
surcharge on every email delivered, by billing Internet Service
Providers at source. The consumer would then be billed inturn 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 email is costing
nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed the 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
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 non-inerference. If the Federal Govt. is permitted to tamper with
our liberties by adding a surcharge to e-mail, 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 (R)
has even suggested a "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all
Internet etc.

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+