5 Cent charge on E-mail

[David Morris]

Just received this.  Does anyone on this list (Millison?) know if this is
legit?

----- Original Message -----
From: Pearse, Joaquin <jepearse at avondale.com>
To: 'Jim Herring' <combo31 at hotmail.com>; 'Adam Graff' <agraff at bellsouth.net>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 4:09 PM
Subject: 5 Cent charge on E-mail

Looks like US Post Office isn't happy that we are not using snail mail and
wants legislation passed charging us 5 cents each time we send an E-mail.
Read on and have your objection heard loud and clear!!!!!!
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 noninterference. 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 6th 1999 Editorial)
Don't sit by and watch your freedoms 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. Kate
Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman Attorneys at Law
216 Concorde Street, Vienna, Virginia.
Joaquin E Pearse Jr.
Electrical Engineering
Avondale Industries, Inc.
Phone  (504) 436-5349
Fax      (504) 436-5798
jepearse at avondale.com<<mailto:jepearse at avondale.com>>