> >> DON'T DELETE THIS ONE
> >> STOP OUR GOV 'T FROM TAMPERING WITH OUR
> >> FREE E-MAIL !!!!
> >>
> >> 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 bureacratic 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 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, V
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