On Fri, Sep 15, 2000 at 11:06:06AM -0400, Lori Hitchcock
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES!!!!
>
> ************************************
> VOTE NO ON Bill 602P!!!!
> I guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail
> It figures! No more free E-mail! We knew this was coming!
Whenever you see somthing like this, check it out at a few "Urban Legends"
sites (http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Urban_Legends/). Today I found
"The Urban Legend Combat Kit", which appears to have some good replies for
those who refuse to believe that critically important story they posted was a
hoax (http://urbanlegends.about.com/ is pretty good, too). For this one, it
says:
Thank you for forwarding me the "postage surcharge" story.
Fortunately, the story you sent me is a well-known urban legend. I
have attached an excerpt from an article on this urban legend I
recently read on the Internet TOURBUS.
By the way, if you do not yet subscribe to TOURBUS, I strongly
recommend that you do. TOURBUS is a free, semi-weekly Internet
newsletter that tells you about the latest Internet sites and helps
you debunk the latest Internet urban legends. I have included
TOURBUS subscription information at the bottom of this message.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Urban Legend Update: Postage Surcharge Story -- 1 June 1999
-----------------------------------------------------------
About a month ago, a story circulated around the Net warning Canadians
that
... 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. Toronto lawyer Richard Stepp QC is working to prevent
this legislation from becoming law.
The Canada Post Corporation is claiming that lost revenue due to
the proliferation of email is costing nearly $23,000,000 in
revenue per year ...
The letter goes on to warn that
... One back-bencher, Liberal Tony Schnell (NB) has even
suggested a "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all
Internet service" above and beyond the government's proposed
email charges ...
Fortunately, the letter is yet another Internet hoax. According to
a recent column in the Toronto Sun,
Don't rush to the keyboards and phones. The lawyer does not
exist. The law firm whose name appears on the alert does not
exist. There is no MP named Schnell. Forget Bill 602P; that's
not even the way bills are numbered.
[quote shamelessly stolen from David Emery's "Email Tax for
Canada" column, which we will talk about in a moment ... maybe.]
Proving the old saying "everything old is new again," here is a recent
story that has been floating around the Net. See if you notice any
similarities. The story says that
Bill 602P will permit the [US] 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.
The letter goes on to warn that
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
Deja vu? Yep. The message floating around the Net right now is
almost word for word the same message that floated around Canada in
May. [I particularly enjoyed the fact that Mr. Schnell was able to
switch from being a Canadian Liberal to being an American Republican
in less than a month -- ain't technology wonderful?!]
For the record, both stories are hoaxes. Neither Canada nor the US is
considering an email surcharge. Neither Canada nor the US has a
lawmaker named "Tony Schnell" [that's what happens when you jump
parties!]. Neither Canada nor the US has a bill 602P (in Canada,
bills from the Senate begin with the letter S and bills from the
Commons begin with the letter C; in the US, bills from the Senate
begin with the letter S and bills from the House begin with the letter
H). Finally, neither Toronto nor Washington has a lawyer named
Richard Stepp.
... and, no, Australia isn't considering an email surcharge either. :P
For more information about this story, visit David Emery's new site at
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
--
Bob Bell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out,
because it usually is. :-)"
-- Larry Wall, creator of the Perl programming language
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