Re: Non-dinosaurian post, but potentially important

[Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette <dinosaur@dinosaur.org>]

The information about this hoax may be found at:

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



Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:

> A friend sent this to me, and advised me to pass it along; the first people
> who came to mind were, of course, the List. I don't know how much there is to
> all this, but since it potentially affects us all, I decided to spread this
> post around a bit. Apologies for the non-paleo, non-dinosaurian nature of the
> contents.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: 5 CENT SURCHARGE PER EMAIL SENT/DELIVERED
> Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 00:07:21 +0000
> Message-ID: <19990525.002008.-139767.0.Sandog@juno.com>
>
> 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 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 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 e-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and
> relatives to write to their congressman 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 don't want.
>
>  Kate Turner
>  Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman

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