<html> <blockquote type=cite cite>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!   </blockquote></html>