Date:         Mon, 5 Jul 1999 20:43:18 -0700
Reply-To:     Tom Cullen <stcullen@SPRYNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Cullen <stcullen@SPRYNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: E-mail legislation
In-Reply-To:  <005201bec758$96ce3b20$8cefffcc@default>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

hmmmm.... it WOULD cut down on junk email.....

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Raśl Barreras
Sent: Monday, July 05, 1999 7:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: E-mail legislation


Fellow listees,

I got the following from a friend and haven't checked it out yet. True?
False? Maybe someone in the list has an idea of what is happening, if
anything. If true, I believe that it would be very detrimental to all.

----------------------------------------------
Date: Sunday, June 27, 1999 6:39 PM

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 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
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