US Stamps for E-mails

[Paul Graeber]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment

>Please read the following information carefully if you intend to stay 
>on-line 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 your use of the Internet.
>
>Under proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will be attempting to
>bilk e-mail users out of "alternate postage fees."  Bill 602P will permit
>the Federal Government to charge a 5 cent surcharge on every e-mail
>delivered. They will accomplish this 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 U.S. Postal Service is claiming 
>that 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 citizen 
>received about 10 pieces of e-mail 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 e-mail, 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 e-mail, it will mark the end of the "free" Internet 
>in the United States.  One congressman, Tony Schnell has even 
>suggested  "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all Internet 
>service" above and beyond the government's proposed e-mail charges.  Note 
>that most of the major newspapers have ignored this story, the only 
>exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of 
>e-mail  surcharge "a useful concept whose time has come."  (March 6th 1999 
>Editorial)
>
>Don't sit by and watch your freedom erode away!  Send this email to all
>Americans on your list and tell your friends and relatives to write to
>their congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P.
>
>Initiated by:  Kate Turner
>                       Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman
>                       Attorneys at Law
>                       216 Concorde Street,
>                        Vienna, VA
>
>Please forward this to everyone that you can!
>

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/59/d0/ae/de/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--