Read this if you play by email

[Hotfoot]

Two words: Cow Pies.

The government can't charge for emails, and if they even tried, I wish them good luck on trying to figure out just which packets are e-mail, which are instant Messages, which are GET and POST commands from webservers, which are message Boards, and which are multiplayer games. And what about lost packets? Would they tax those too? They take up bandwidth, but never reach their destination.

It might sound plausible to tax the internet like that, but unless the government COMPLETELY changes the way the net is structured and how it functions, it's not going to happen. And since the net is international, they would have to coerce EVERY major internet-using goverment into going along with these changes, or risk essentially creating an national intranet out of America's current internet.

The concern about keeping the net relatively free, however, is a legitimate one. We could go back to paying by how many hours or minutes we spend Online, or maybe even by how many packets are successfully transferred. And the net could become regulated by censor after censor. I don't know how many of you follow Everquest, but a while back there was a player who was Banned from the game for writing and posting fan-fiction that many people considered to be offensive (it involved slavery and torture). While we don't pay for play here like on Everquest, the nature of these forums could be made (and I'm not saying they will ever be) so that anyone posting such sick ideas as a genocidal war and glorifying it in fiction will be Banned, their Posts deleted, and their parents emailed on the subject.

Anyway, it's all a question of control or freedom. Freedom leads to chaos, control leads to stagnation. We have to decide upon a middle ground that works for everyone.

-Hotfoot
"Serious concepts, realized in fantasy."

[Will]

All taxing and appropriations bills (this would be one) must start in the House of Representatives, and the bill's name will take the form of HR#, with # being a number.

Also, the federal government has no authority to track, let alone charge, for e-mails sent. This is just another hoax to get a lot of people riled up for nothing.

There is an article floating around somewhere that details exactly how to determine if an alarming e-mail is a hoax, but a basic rundown: If it involves the government taxing you for using internet services, you or a charity recieving money for forwarding, or any incentive for forwarding, it's a hoax.

[disabled]

Chain letters... Bah!

The power to tax is the power to destroy!

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HADRIAN AVENTINE
pacea@solar-outpost.com
http://www.hyperionbase.com

[LeTharg]

Wow, use a little common sense before buying into these things. Or, at least check it out.

There are a number of sites that report on hoaxes like this. Here is one: http://urbanlegends.about.com/mbody.htm

And here is what they say about this one: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blemtax2.htm

[tesco samoa]

If you are interested their is a newsletter and/or web site that keeps internet Users up to date on what is going on.
http://www.politechbot.com

You can Subscribe to their email list their.

Warning this is a web site of political nature

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I am in no way endorcing any views from this site nor am I affiliated in anyway.
I find the information and/or opinions interesting and I thought I would pass that info on.

Also if you do sign up expect about 4 to 20 Messages a week from the mail bot.

[Kadste]

I know we are all extremely intelligent people here, so before we go off into an unknown warp point look at this link:
http://new.usps.com/cgi-bin/uspsbv/s...nt.jsp?D=13643

This is from the official USPS website and clearly explains that this is a hoax.

But if you want search the web for the bill. It surely has generated a lot of discussions.

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Never Give up, Never Surrender!

[geoschmo]

Hehehe. Hoax debunking is such a fun sport. These things are always so full of "facts", that never stand up to even the slightest amount of scrutiny. Even something as minor as the quip at the end about the Washingtonian magazine editorial is garbage.

Check out http://www.washingtonian.com/about/emailhoax.html

Apparently they got tired of people emailing them reading them the riot act, cause they posted a message about it on their website.

quote:

---

The message that is apparently out over the Internet about an "editorial" by The Washingtonian supporting an e-mail tax is a hoax.
We never wrote such an article or editorial. We do not have a "March 6" issue—we are a monthly magazine.

We at The Washingtonian do not know who started this rumor, but it is not true. The e-mail tax is a hoax.

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Geoschmo