[NHCOLL-L:85] [Fwd: Long Distance/E-mail]

[Stuart G. Poss]

CNN reported that in the next two weeks, Congress is going to vote on
allowing telephone companies to charge for Internet access.  That means,
every time we make a long distance e-mail we will receive a long
distance
charge.  This will get costly.  Please visit the following web site AND
complain.  Complain to your Congressman. Don't allow this to pass.

http://www.house.gov/writerep

Pass this on to your friends.  It is urgent!  I hope all of you will
pass
this on to all your friends and family.  All of us have an interest in
this
one.

PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW TODAY BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

Should the proposed legislation pass in two weeks time, literally every
time you 
press on a hyperlink on the Internet that effectively requires a
long-distance call between servers, you will be billed for the call.  If
you have stock in a long-distance carrier or a phone company that can
add a "connect" charge, this could be a great help to your bottom line. 
If you don't, you might want to suggest to your representative that a no
vote might be more appropriate.

Ordinarily, I try to refrain from broadcast messaging, particularly that
related to pending legislation, but since time is of the essence and the
outcome could greatly affect the ability of scientists and educators to
use the Internet, it is important that the ramifications of this
legislation are widely known and understood by all.

If this passes, lets just hope that some clever hacker doen't figure out
a way to fool our our websites into accepting collect calls!  On the
otherhand, it would certainly put an end to "Internet Mania" on the
stock market.

Apologies to foreign colleagues, who may already prefer to receive less
email from the US, and for duplicates received via crossposting.
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: Holland.Bill at epamail.epa.gov
Subject: Long Distance/E-mail
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 08:43:38 -0500
Size: 2193
Url: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/19990414/958ecce3/attachment.mht