this is kinda off topic,...but read it anyway it has to do with us all
>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 bill 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 bureacratic
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.
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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