minstrel: En: It's not a hoax any more. I checked this out and it's unfortunately true.]

[Claudia Chaves]

Even from Brazil, where it has no bearing, I can see the importance of this
piece of information.  Go on forwarding it, please!  In friendship,

Claudia Chaves
-----Mensagem original-----
De: Ravnos <sanctuary at koan.com>
Para: Casia <MBassett at ivic.net>
Cc: Stephan the Scrivner <sscriv at ivic.net>; Master Damales
<Cheval at koan.com>; Baroness Allaine <Baronessallaine at hotmail.com>; a ...
Rav, . . . <Sanctuary at koan.com>
Data: Segunda-feira, 31 de Maio de 1999 21:35
Assunto: : It's not a hoax any more. I checked this out and it's
unfortunately true.]


>               This is SOOOO not a chain letter !
>                                                         Rav, . . .
>
>
>Bclardy at webtv.net writes:
>
>
>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 bureacratic 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.
>
>
>                  =^..^=      Ravnos     =^..^=
>               Admitted Aliurophile & proud of it !
>                A Good Pun, is it's own Reword
>                    A Bad Pun is Even Better !
>            {AKA} Lord Yvon Bater of Darkwood
>                       Sanctuary at koan.com
>                         { ICQ #37685523 }
>          Si hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et
>       liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades
>





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