OT Goverment charging for email or posting in NG soon?

  • Thread starter Thread starter R.L
  • Start date Start date
R

R.L

Hi, this is OT, but IMO, it will potientially affect everyone
here. I have heard about that that Bill Gate and other big
tech players have been trying to get email charged for a
while. However, I have not heard of anything on the main
stream media. But I got this message (below) forwarded to me
from a friend today and I wonder if anyone here knows about
any updates on the issue, or if the information in the message
is accurate. If they start charging for sending email 5 cents
each, how about posting to ng like this (will it be charged,
too)? Can't imagine how it would affect usnet newsgroup. I
really hope that this won't happen but I don't know what I
can do. How can we "keep it free"? In addition to comments
and updates, suggestions regarding what one could do would
also be good (e.g., spread the words about this if one is
running a newsletter of some kind).


Message started:
Federal Bill 602P-Mail Charge



Guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P charges
5-cents per E-mail sent. It figures! No more free
E-mail! We knew this was coming!! Bill 602P will permit
the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent charge on
every delivered E-mail.



Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay
online and continue using E-mail. 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 our use of the Internet.



Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be
attempting to bill E-mail users out of "alternative
postage fees."


Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a
5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, by
billing Internet Service Providers at source. The
consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP.
Washington, DC lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay
to prevent this legislation from becoming law.



The US Postal Service is claiming lost revenue, due to the
proliferation of E-mail, 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 person received about 10 pieces of E-mail
per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual
would be an additional 50 cents a day -- or over
$180 per year -- above and beyond their regular
Internet costs.



Note that this would be money paid directly to the US
Postal Service for a service they do not even
provide.


The whole point of the Internet is democracy and
noninterference. 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 coast to coast. If the US
Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will
mark the end of the "free" Inter net in the United
States.


Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even
suggested a "$20-$40 per month surcharge on all
Internet service " above and beyond the governments
proposed E-mail charges. Note that most of the major
newspapers have ignored the story the only exception being
the Washingtonian which called the idea of
E-mail surcharge "a useful concept who's time has
come" (March 6th, 1999 Editorial). Do not sit by and
watch your freedom erode away!



Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all
your friends and relatives to write their congressional
representative 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 do not
want.


PLEASE FORWARD!
Click to expand...



-- RL
 
Hi, this is OT, but IMO, it will potientially affect everyone
here. I have heard about that that Bill Gate and other big
tech players have been trying to get email charged for a
while. However, I have not heard of anything on the main
stream media. But I got this message (below) forwarded to me
from a friend today and I wonder if anyone here knows about
any updates on the issue, or if the information in the message
is accurate. If they start charging for sending email 5 cents
each, how about posting to ng like this (will it be charged,
too)? Can't imagine how it would affect usnet newsgroup. I
really hope that this won't happen but I don't know what I
can do. How can we "keep it free"? In addition to comments
and updates, suggestions regarding what one could do would
also be good (e.g., spread the words about this if one is
running a newsletter of some kind).


Message started:
Click to expand...
<snip>

Hoax per :

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blemtax2.htm

/weezer
 
R.L said:
Hi, this is OT, but IMO, it will potientially affect everyone
here. I have heard about that that Bill Gate and other big
tech players have been trying to get email charged for a
while. However, I have not heard of anything on the main
stream media. But I got this message (below) forwarded to me
from a friend today and I wonder if anyone here knows about
any updates on the issue, or if the information in the message
is accurate. If they start charging for sending email 5 cents
each, how about posting to ng like this (will it be charged,
too)? Can't imagine how it would affect usnet newsgroup. I
really hope that this won't happen but I don't know what I
can do. How can we "keep it free"? In addition to comments
and updates, suggestions regarding what one could do would
also be good (e.g., spread the words about this if one is
running a newsletter of some kind).
Click to expand...

99,999999999999999% of all emails screaming people into forwarding that
email are either hoaxes or scams. If you're not sure what to do, Google for
the subject of the email together with the word hoax.
If you don't know what a hoax is, look here :

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oi=defmore&q=define:hoax

HTH
 
default said:
It is a very old hoax. Still going around. Still trolling.
Click to expand...

Amazing how these things can go on for years, every few months I get an
oh-no-is-that-thing-still-going-around?-email.
 
Bloned said:
Amazing how these things can go on for years, every few months I get an
oh-no-is-that-thing-still-going-around?-email.
Click to expand...

Most people who know me have been given the Boulder Pledge:

"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the
result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters,
petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others.
This is my contribution to the survival of the online community."
 
Demetrius Zeluff said:
Most people who know me have been given the Boulder Pledge:

"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the
result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters,
petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others.
This is my contribution to the survival of the online community."
Click to expand...

Yes, but the one I've gotten is different...it's really special! They
say I can make my member become the size of a barnyard animal! I'm
really looking forward to this, especially since it only cost me
$399.00!

See? You shouldn't sow such distrust, there ARE good deals out there!


;-)
 
R.L typed:
Hi, this is OT, but IMO, it will potientially affect everyone
here. I have heard about that that Bill Gate and other big
tech players have been trying to get email charged for a
while. However, I have not heard of anything on the main
stream media. But I got this message (below) forwarded to me
from a friend today and I wonder if anyone here knows about
any updates on the issue, or if the information in the message
is accurate. If they start charging for sending email 5 cents
each, how about posting to ng like this (will it be charged,
too)? Can't imagine how it would affect usnet newsgroup. I
really hope that this won't happen but I don't know what I
can do. How can we "keep it free"? In addition to comments
and updates, suggestions regarding what one could do would
also be good (e.g., spread the words about this if one is
running a newsletter of some kind).

Message started:
Click to expand...
<snip bogus stuff>

The definitive word(s)
http://www.smilepop.com/index.cfm?action=viewcard&content_id=8407&page_id=8407
 
Message started:
Click to expand...

Bah. Emails screaming "FORWARD ME!!!!" are going to be bunk 99% of the
time.

Regardless, you should be able to tell that it's bogus just by looking at
the first line -- "Federal Bill 602P" doesn't even come close to the
naming conventions the House and Senate use.

Maybe you should forward this instead:

http://thomas.loc.gov/
 
Federal Bill 602P-Mail Charge
===================
There is no such Bill number. In fact, this is contrary to the long
established Congressional methods of numbering bills.
===========
No such Member of Congress.

==================
The Washingtonian is a MONTHLY magazine. It does not carry editorials
supporting proposals in Congress.


There has not been a request from the USPS to charge for e-mails not
being delivered by the USPS. However there have been suggestions -
which never made it to the level of proposed bills - for very small
charges on BULK e-mailings, that is in the hundreds of copies
simultaneously, as a means of discouraging spam. However, the
impossibility of collecting this money from spammers has effectively
killed the notion.

By the way, on some other internet messages it is claimed that this
bill, using the very same number and also attributed to a Tony Schnell
is being considered in the Canadian Parliament. Again, no such bill
and no such member in the Canadian Parliament.

This story is pure bs.
 
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