Check this out:
Date: Monday, June 07, 1999 5:39 PM
If this passes, you won't be able to afford e-mail!
Dear Internet Subscriber:
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 U.S. 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 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 U.S. Postal Service for a
service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is
democracy and non-interference. 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 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 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 |
