Off Topic

["Alan Imberg" <alan_i@sprynet.com>]

Please forgive this non-looping e-mail. However, being that e-mail is an
integral part of this lists functionality, I thought you would be 
interested
in this item that was forwarded to me. I checked on the bill. It for real.


> >>Please read the following carefully if you intend to
> >>stay online and continue using email: 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 DC lawyer
> >>Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this legislation
> >>from
> >>becoming law.
> >>
> >>The US 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 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 US 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
> >>efficiency. It currently takes up to 6 days for a
> >>letter to be delivered from New York to Buffalo.
> >>
> >>If the US 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 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 email to all Americans on your list and tell
> >>your friends and relatives to write to their
> >>congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P. Kate Turner
> >>Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman
> >>Attorneys at Law 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, Va.
> >
>