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If this is for real, it requires your immediate attention and action unless
you want to let the U.S. government tax each item of e-mail that you
send/receive as well as taxing your online services at exorbitant rates.
With kindest regards,
Dick Smith
Dick@xxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Bert Antonik <mbcsne@xxxxxxx>
To: <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 10:49 AM
Subject: Is this for real?
> > Government is trying to tax e-mail!
> >
> > ==========================
> >
> > If your local post office has a bulletin board you might want to
> copy and
> > post this to alert others. Please remove headers, etc. before posting
> at
> > your local post office.
> >
> > 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
> > Attorneys at Law 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, VA
>
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