5 cent surcharge for email to the USPS (update)

I'm not sure what anyone else has heard but this "new" 602P bill going through the House of Representatives (I think) bill would state that the USPS would get 5 cents for every email sent by anyone online in the United States.

Wanting to find out more on this, I went and searched on www.google.com for 'postal service email charge' and found this page (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blemtax2.htm) that clarified a lot of things.

Check it out. I found it a good read and maybe someone else will too.

I had heard that they were talking about it, but i didnt know if they would actually try to do it. I dont think it will work... At least i hope not



:shootem:

that in itself will help in the war against UCE or SPAM however it would need to be adopted globally for it to have any impact. I like this as an option as one of my hats is mail administrator and i get bored with the hundreds of mindless crappy emails i end up deleting on a daily basis

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupda...838340,00.html

Its a shame it will never happen :(

though it would cut back on spam, and thats a VERY good thing, i dont think it would work, even if it was passed.

It wouldnt take long before people found ways around it.

This is really outrageous! The internet has been commercialized solely for monetary gains. This must not be allowed. We must unite and strike back at the hearts of these capitalists!:mad:

Having been a Sys Admin myself for the last 7 years I will say now what I say each time I hear this. When the USPS pays for the infrastructure to deliver e-mail then I will pay to send it. They won't and I won't. It's a matter of the people having to pay twice for the service, once to their ISP and once to the USPS, it's just wrong. And I absolutely will not ever pay the USPS to receive it. I also don't think there is any way, technologically, to implement this unless all e-mail went through USPS servers, the ISPs certainly couldn't afford to implement some sort of tracking system. Also what happens to mail that is returned or never delivered for whatever reason like filtering, systems crashes, etc. The worst thing to do is look at this as a way to stop SPAM as that viewpoint gives a law like this a strong toehold. There are other ways to deal with SPAM and passing anti-spam laws is one, it worked for junk faxes in California.

Just imagine the uproar if they did this. There would be a new revolution.

Stuart

I agree with what Stuart said...when they pay for it, I'll pay for it. Since they won't, I won't. It's the same damned thing that the RIAA is doing for cd-protection and whatnot. They're missing out on money because of the inconvenience of email? Not really. If you're doing that, then why aren't they going after the phone companies? After all, long distance calls and whatnot definitely reduced the number of mail being sent.

I dont know how many of you track the spam you get, but most of it is sent from servers not visably owned by the originators of the spam. bogus web sites with "misconfigured" servers are used. elaborate means are used to hide their true idenity, this is supposed to be illegal, but as long as nobody signs a complaint($$$), nothing can be done. The same ruse would be used to avoid paying charges.
To be effective it would take a rather large department of not so poorly paid feds. The cost would be staggering. beauocracy at its finest.

of couse it wouldn't be fair to charge people who dont even own a computer to foot this bill. and in these troubled times we don't want to hinder the growth of industry, so naturally a small fee would have to be payed by the folks who do. this will be realized after the system is implemented of course...oops! a slight oversight.

spam sucks! i actively fight it every way i can. but its a small price to pay to keep government hands out.

if anyone here is a spam tracker, i have a question on one im trying to track. its a real bitch!

There is no such bill...in the link (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blemtax2.htm)...URBAN LEGENDS would be the key words...

WTF do you think you pay your ISP for?...as far as web-based mail goes, if they want to charge you for it (as MSN is spamming its customers to buy xMB of server space and no further junk mail for $x a month) they will try to eventually...it has nothing to do with the USPS.

Ouroboros

Ouroborus, how many "fake" things are out there in concern with computers, emails and whatnot? It's not entirely "urban legend" considering it *has* been discussed once before and got shot down. When I can find the page with this information, I'll gladly post it here.

As for web-based email, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever had the misfortune to troubleshoot. People get what they pay for and they expect to have 10000000 megs of free space on servers remotely with access times < 100ms and transmission speeds > 1 mb/s all the while without ads.

As for 'urban legends', do you think it's a legend when there's a possibility of a bill being passed stating that if you're an "african american" and had ancestors that were slaves, you'll be getting paid (some form of monetary compensation)? That right there is far worse, I believe, than any 5 cent surcharge for email.

stuart hit the nail on the head.

there is no infrastructure, (tech based), in place to do this anytime in the near future. on top of that, their is no legislature to govern it.

IF, and i mean, IF, this were to ever happen, it's very far off. and i really doubt it will ever happen. every post in here makes vaild points. and i'm sure that there are others that we are all missing. each point made is a concern that USPS and Uncle Sam have to address even before they can begin to architect the technology. and we are painfully aware how fast things move in our gov't. unless this is a national crisis, don't worry about seeing it any time soon.

Vorlin, there are many wild rumors about computers, the internet, etc. floating around. I may have jumped on this one too quickly as I first heard this rumor about 6 months ago. Perhaps some wishful thinking is involved as the governmental regulation of the internet and other such intellectual properties (in my opinion) become commonplace. Just quelling the rumors for my own sake of mind, I guess.

It's unfortunate how things may progress from here, things that seem to be inevitable...just think "GIMS" - Global Internet Mail Service...<sigh>...

Just trying to hold it off as long as I can by denying the possibility...

Ouroboros