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 noninterference. 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 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 ? 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 ____________________________________________

-- Mike (midwestmike_@hotmail.com), July 08, 1999

Answers

Sorry folks, I should have put this in quotes. These aren't my words. Just posted it as I recievewd it. Does this stink or what?

-- Mike (midwestmike_@hotmail.com), July 08, 1999.

This is a hoax, a rumor, no truth to it whatsoever.

-- regular (zzz@z.z), July 08, 1999.

Yup. Urban Legend. Won't die....

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), July 08, 1999.

What! I been HAD? Anyone know the URL for the urban legands site?

-- Mike (midwestmike_@hotmail.com), July 08, 1999.

U.S. Postal Service says it's a hoax

-- Link Boy (-@-.-), July 08, 1999.

..so does the U.S. House of Reps

-- Link Boy (-@-.-), July 08, 1999.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 08, 1999.

Comments from The Washingtonian (mentioned in the email) regarding the hoax.

-- Link Boy (-@-.-), July 08, 1999.

Maybe "Poolenocchio" is at it again?

mv0

-- mv0 (mv0@aaaaa.a), July 08, 1999.

This rumor has been around for close 2 years now. Just won't seem to die.

-- b (b@b.b), July 08, 1999.

Yes this is a hoax, but it is a fact that the government is charging you "for the internet". It is often refered to as the GORE Tax as it was an iniative pushed by Gore and his friends at the FCC. On each of your long Distance carrier bills (read ATT, MCI, Sprint, ect) there is a fee that was imposed starting around March this year that is usually called the UNIVERSAL CONNECTIVITY Fee or some such name. It is a Fee (read TAX) collected for the FCC to "Wire all schools with the internet".

This is an illegal tax in my opinion, but few are aware it is even being collected. On an average bill the fee is $4-$7 /month depending on usage.

See:

http://www.goretax.com/links.html

http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/98/113085.html

Gingrich Rips 'Gore Tax,' Y2K Bug

****Gingrich Rips "Gore Tax," Y2K Bug 06/09/98 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1998 JUN 9 (NB) -- By Bill Pietrucha, Newsbytes. Only days before the universal service program gets a renewed once-over by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he would join, and lead, the fight in Congress to forestall additional charges on consumers' phone bills to wire schools and libraries to the Internet.

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), July 08, 1999.

Help Fight the Hidden

"Gore Tax" in Your

Long Distance Phone Bill!

The E-Rate is a new tax on your long distance telephone service. It has been dubbed by the media the "Gore Tax" as it was levied to fund Vice President Gore's pet project, the wiring of every classroom in the country for Internet access by the year 2000.

This is a multi-billion dollar tax hike, forced on the phone companies and consumers without a direct vote of Congress.

According to a statement released by the House Commerce Committee, "The FCC, with the support of Vice President Gore, went beyond Congress' intent. As a result, millions of Americans who pay the bills for more than 160 million phone lines -- including single, working mothers and people on fixed incomes -- will pay more for service each month." What do YOU think? Should bureaucrats be able to tax you without the consent of Congress? Is this the best way to fund computers in schools?

Take our online Opinion Poll and let your views be known.

This will particularly hit home Internet users who have two phone lines. Vice President Gore has a long track record of statements supporting expanding Internet usage and getting more "netizens" online. However, in a misguided attempt to get more schools wired, he's making it more expensive for the average citizen to connect to the Internet -- and for the parents of schoolchildren to afford to give their children Internet access at home.

The program it funds is a bureaucratic nightmare, administered by a government corporation that, according to the General Accounting Office, was created illegally.

Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-FL) has introduced HR 4065, which would place a moratorium on funding the "Gore Tax" program.

Please write to your Senators and Congressmen and ask them to support this legislation. Please also write to the FCC and to Vice President Gore today to let them know you want this tax STOPPED.

If the E-Rate makes YOU irate too, go to our "electronic bumperstickers" page and add this or one of our other banners to your home page. And subscribe now to "I-RATE!" the free e-mail newsletter

-- freeman (freeman@cali.com), July 08, 1999.

The post subject is NOT a farfetched possibility.

The Postal Service (USPS) is authorized by the Constitution, but nothing was said about it being a monopoly, which status has been legislated.

Many of you don't remember (probably weren't even born) when UPS was started and the fight it had to go through just to get a package delivery service going. "Taking away business from the USPS."

At one time (maybe still), if you sent a note (letter) inside a package delivered by USPS, you had to pay a 1st class stamp plus the parcel post (USPS) cost.

Messenger/courier services had to (still do?) pay the same sort of fee on courier delivered packages, even though the post office did diddly, just as now purported to be in the works for e-mail.

A USPS grab at more fees in NOT out of the question. BTW, a major purpose of the USPS is to maintain a database of the current whereabouts of every nigger (regardless of race) on the federal government plantation (USA).

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 09, 1999.

bold off

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 09, 1999.

You can view it three ways:

Three entities thinking to themselves as they look over the programmer's shoulder to the web browser on the screen

USER: "Hmmm...how can I best use this thing?"
CEO: "Hmmm...how can I make money off this thing?"
GOVERNMENT: "Hmmm...how can I tax this thing?"

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), July 09, 1999.