Jack,
This is a hoax. This email string starts going every year claiming that the
USPS wants money for email and it simply is one of those "urban legends".
Below is a copy of a listing from www.urbanlegends.com regarding this hoax.
Originally posted: 05/22/99
Here's an item straight out of the hoax recycling bin. A "new" email forward
claims that the U.S. Postal Service wants to levy a 5-cent federal surcharge
on every email delivered within the United States. Far from being new,
however, this message has been zipping from modem to modem since May 1999.
A virtually identical message circulating one month earlier claimed that
exactly the same thing was happening in Canada.
False, in both cases (see comments below).
Subject: E-MAIL SURCHARGE
Dear Internet Subscriber:
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 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 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 email, it will mark the end of the
"free" Internet in the United States. One congressman, Tony Schnell (r) 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, Va.
-----Original Message-----
From: JACKGP20@a... [mailto:JACKGP20@a...]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 2:11 PM
To: erielack@l...; BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com;
NYC-Railroad@yahoogroups.com; wplist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [BRHSlist] Vote no on Bill 602P
Well, the Post Office is now trying to get money for services it does not
perform.
There is a federal bill (602P) that would permit the federal government to
charge a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered.
The Internet Service Provider would be billed which in tern would bill the
customer.
As you can see, this would be the doom of lists such as ours.
It is now time for us to inform our elected representatives to kill this
bill.
I am going to forward a more detailed letter that I received. I certainly
hope the test portion isn't deleted. You really have to read this.
Jack Grasso
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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