Larry, go to Netscape (or your favorite alternate browser) and search using
the key phrase "email tax hoax"
You'll find lots of evidence...
Theo
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Paulick [SMTP:larry.p@erols.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 7:52 AM
> To: tigers@autox.team.net
> Subject: email
>
>
> CNN has reported that within the next two weeks Congress is going to
> vote on allowing telephone companies to CHARGE A TOLL FEE for Internet
> access.
>
> Translation: Every time we send a long distance e-mail we will receive a
> long distance charge. This will get costly. Please visit the following
> web
> site
> and file a complaint.
>
> Complain to your Congressperson. We can't allow this to pass! The
> following address will allow you to send an e-mail on this subject
> DIRECTLY
> to your Congressperson.
>
> http://www.house.gov/writerep ,
>
> Pass this on to your friends. We should ALL have an interest in
> this one. WAIT, THERE'S MORE. IN ADDITION,
>
> 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 postagefees".
>
> 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 isworking without pay to prevent this legislation
> from becoming law.
>
> The U.S. Postal Service is claiming that lost revenue due to the
> proliferation of e-mail 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 willmark the end of the "free" Internet
> in
> the United States. One congressman, Tony Schnell 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.
>
> PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO USES EMAIL REMEMBER THESE ARE
> TWO
> SEPARATE ISSUES THAT EFFECT ALL OF US ONLINE.
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