amy parker on mon 20 mar 00
I received this info that will affect all US clayarters, and wanted to pass
it on, even though it is not clay-related. If you receive individual clayart
messages, and some of these proposals pass, you will be paying major $$$ for
the privilege of receiving this mail!
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Subject: "NO!" to Bill 602P
RE: Congress to allow email charges...Vote on Capital Hill in two weeks.
CNN has reported that within the next two weeks, Congress is going to vote
on allowing telephone companies to CHARGE A TOLL FEE for Internet access.
Translation: Every time we send long distance e-mail we will receive a
long distance charge. This will get costly. Please visit the following
web site and file a complaint. Complain to your Congress person. We can't
allow this to pass.
The following address will allow you to send an e-mail on this subject
DIRECTLY to your Congress person:
http://www.house.gov/writerep
WAIT, IN ADDITION: 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 bill email users
and "alternate postage fee." 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." Because the average citizen receives at least 10 pieces of e-mail
daily, 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. Small businesses would be severely damaged.
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 inefficiency. 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 6, 1999 Editorial).
amy parker Lithonia, GA
amyp@sd-software.com
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