Revenge of E-mail Surcharge Bill 602P

The Evil Empire that is the U.S. Postal Service is preparing to unleash a nefarious plan called “Bill 602P” that will charge Americans for every e-mail sent, raising billions and delivering a crippling blow against its archenemy, the snail-mail slaying Internet. Or so says an hoax from at least 1999 that absolutely refuses to die.

Internet-loving, e-mail sending netizens everywhere will be relieved to know that this e-mail (in all of its many iterations) is just as bogus as it was on the day it first appeared as a nefarious plan allegedly hatched by the Canadian post office.

Here are the hoaxes; scroll down for the debunking.

Collected January 10, 2002
Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, 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 US Postal Service is claiming 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 person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a day — or over $180 per year — above and beyond their regular Internet costs.

Note that this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for a service they do not even provide.

The whole point of the Internet is democracy and noninterference. 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 coast to coast. If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will mark the end of the “free” Internet in the United States.

Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a “$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service” above and beyond the governments proposed E-mail charges.  Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story the only exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of E-mail surcharge “a useful concept who’s time has come” (March 6th, 1999 Editorial). Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode away!

Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to write their congressional representative and say “NO” to Bill 602P.

Collected Dec. 22, 2001

Guess the warnings were true.  Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail sent.
It figures!  No more free E-mail!  We knew this was coming!!  Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent charge on every delivered  E-mail.
Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online 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 our use of the Internet.

Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting to bill E-mail users out of “alternative postage fees.” Bill 602P will permit the Federal overnment to charge a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, 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 US Postal Service is claiming 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 person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in  1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a  day —  or over $180 per year — above and beyond their regular Internet costs.

Note that this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for a  service they do not even provide.

The whole point of the Internet is democracy and noninterference. 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 coast to coast.  If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with  E-mail, it will mark the end of the “free” Internet in the United States.
Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a “$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service” above and beyond the governments proposed E-mail charges.  Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story the only exception being the Washingtonian which  called the idea of E-mail surcharge “a useful concept who’s time has come”  (March 6th, 1999 Editorial).  Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode  away!

Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and  relatives to write their congressional representative and   say “NO” to Bill  602P.  It will only take a few moments of your time and could very well be instrumental in killing a bill we do not want.
PLEASE FORWARD!

Collected January 31, 2001

There was a piece on ‘World News Tonight’ Monday mentioning briefly this same subject….

Subject: US Stamps for E-mails

Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay on-line 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 bill 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 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 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 li- berties 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 (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 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 and say “No!” to Bill 602P.

Kate Turner, Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman Attorneys at Law 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, VA

URGENT!!!! Pass this along to all your email buddies

No matter which version of the hoax you received, this letter is a hoax. Exactly how it got started is a matter of sum speculation. The Industry Standard claims the hoax dates to 1987, and the Urban Legends Archive says it started life in Canada as a surcharge on Canadian e-mail

Periodically the hoax has been strengthened by certain actions in the real world, such as in 1999 when the FCC considered (and rejected) changes to the way that Internet Service Providers are charged for phone calls as part of “reciprocal compensation” for phone companies, which was erroneously translated into a belief that the FCC wanted to charge hourly rates for consumer dial-up access to the net — read their explaination here.

It got another boost 2000 when the moderator in a Hillary Clinton/Rick Lazio debate — not realizing it was a hoax — asked the candidates what they thought of Bill 602P. Read Wired.com’s story about that debacle here

Here’s my debunking, updated in January 2002:

  • The slogan’s wrong: The USPS’s current slogan is “We deliver for you” not “There is nothing like a letter.”
  • The Postal Service denies it: The Postal Service posted a bulletin calling this rumor “totally false” to its Web site; unfortunately it has since taken that link down.
  • The politicians deny it: Congressman Mark Green (8th Congressional District, Wisconsin) web site debunks 602P on his government web site, pointing out that H.R. 602 (the closest house bill to “602P”) was in fact a bill dealing with long-term health insurance. The debunking also points out that House bills don’t include letters in their names and that the bill’s alleged author, Congressman Tony Schnell, doesn’t exist. Read his debunking here.
    Congressman George Radanovich (19th Congressional District, California) has the same debunking. Read the debuking.
    Peter DeFazio (Fourth Congressional District, Oregon) debunked the hoax in his own words on. Nov. 16, 1999. Read the debunking.
    Congressman Mark Green (5th Congressional District, Michigan) also debunks it. Read the debunking.
  • The Library of Congress debunks it: The Library of Congress’s Thomas has a very nice debunking that includes a list of legislation that involves taxation, the Internet and e-mail.
  • The Washingtonian denies it. The newspaper that allegedly wrote an editorial in favor of this proposal has posted a note refuting its part in the hoax. Read their debunking.
  • Where’s the news?: I said it when I wrote the first version of this debunking, and I’ll say it again now — if this were really happening, it would be “News” — you wouldn’t just hear about it as an e-mail forward, you’d hear about it on the evening news, at your favorite web site, or in your morning newspaper (which is what happens whenever they talk about imposing sales taxes on Internet sales).

Of course, at this point in the hoax’s life cycle, we’ve got 99% of the sources on the net — from magazines to government sites to hoax debunkers like myself — proclaiming that this is indeed a hoax. So of course, the hoax is mutating in to a conspiracy theory, with the latest version implying that the reason you haven’t heard about this is because They don’t want you to. To them I say … is your aluminum foil hat on too tight?

The following sites have debunkings of this hoax:

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