I recently received the following email regarding this topic.
VOTE NO ON Bill 602P!!!!
I guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail Sent. It figures! No more free E-mail! We knew this was coming! Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent charge on every delivered
Email.
Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online, and continue using E-mail. 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 our use of the Internet.
Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting to bill E-mail users out of "alternative postage fees." Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government
to charge a 5- cent surcharge on every E-mail 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 lost revenue, due to the
proliferation of E-mail, 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 person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a day-or over $180 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. 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 coast to coast. If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it
will mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States. Our congressional representative, Tony Schnell has
even suggested a "$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the governments proposed E-mail charges Note that most of the major
newspapers have ignored the story-the only exception being the Washingtonian - which called the idea of E-mail surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th,1999 Editorial).
Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode away! Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives write their congressional
representative 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 do not want.
I then received a response from a freind who had this to say.
This is a hoax. More recent versions of the hoax have added on a warning about how Congress is about to pass legislation allowing telephone companies to charge toll fees for Internet access.
'602P' is not a valid name for a Congressional bill. Bills in the House of
Representative are prefaced with 'H.R.'. Bills in the Senate are prefaced
with 'S.'
Congressman Tony Schnell does not exist.
Lawyer Richard Stepp does not exist.
The law firm of 'Berger, Stepp and Gorman' does not exist.
As for per-minute charges for Internet access, the FCC, not the United States
Congress, considered proposals to allow them but rejected the proposals in February
1999.
Thus, the manner in which consumers pay for Internet access is not before the
Commission and the Commission repeatedly has stated that it will not change the
manner in which consumers obtain and pay for Internet access. Rumors to the contrary
persist, however, and the FCC has received hundreds of thousands of e-mails on the
subject over the last two years.
This hoax started life as a bill supposedly being considered in Canada (and no, it is
not true there either). Someone changed all the Canadian references to American
references and yet another Internet hoax was born.
Recently variations have appeared that include warnings about toll fees for
Internet access.
------------------
fordgasm
CLICK HERE to see my 87 GT