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<< Lancair Builders' Mail List >>
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Have you heard anything about this????
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.
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).
Send this e-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and write your
congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P.
Kate Turner
Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman Attorneys at Law
216 Concorde Street, Vienna, VA
Dick > N80D Lancair IV-P, Eagle 540 Power
[While I would rather not stray from the Lancair-only-content intent of
this mail list, this is one of those few times that I feel an exception is
in order... we really don't need to have another tax and the gov reaching
into our pockets again because we choose to use email. Please write your
congressman and voice your opposition to this bill. Thank you.
<Marv>
PS... no responses to this one, please... any sent will be rejected. ]
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LML homepage: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
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