Re: [FWDLK] [Fwd: Congress and the Internet - A Hoax ]]
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Re: [FWDLK] [Fwd: Congress and the Internet - A Hoax ]]



brians wrote:

> Congress will be voting (in less than two weeks) to decide whether or not
> telephone companies
> can levy a charge on your phone bill equal to a long distance call EACH
> time you access the Internet.

Thanks for thinking of us, but this is actually a hoax... Check out
http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa012099.htm?pid=2733&cob=home
for details...

Basically, anything and everything that says "pass this on to all of your
friends" is a hoax, unfortunately.

-Dave

*************

 Internet Access Rumor Won't Go Away

 Dateline: 01/20/99

 Even though it's been debunked by just about everybody, the rumor rages
 on via forwarded email alerts:  the U.S. government, we are told, is on the
 verge of enacting legislation that will raise our Internet access costs by
 allowing calls to ISPs to be charged at long-distance (i.e., per-minute)
 rates.

 The rumor is false, as I will explain shortly.

 It is nonetheless popular, exemplifying a genre of Internet folklore dating
 back to the " modem tax" legend of the early '90s. The rumor then was that
 the FCC was about to approve a surcharge on all phone lines connected
 to computer modems. A grassroots email campaign resulted in a flood of
 protests to the FCC, in spite of the fact that it had no such ruling under
 consideration.

 In similar fashion, the latest rumor has generated hundreds of thousands of
 email complaints from "well-meaning but misinformed people" over the
 past two years, says the FCC.

 Much like the issue of computer security, which has given rise to a body of
 lore including virus hoaxes, hacker alerts, and rumors of privacy invasion,
 low-cost access is and will likely always be a "hot button" topic among
 Internet users, hence fertile ground for rumormongers. False rumors often
 paint a true picture of a community's deep-seated fears and concerns.

 Here's a typical email rendering of the current one:

    Date: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 7:50 PM
    Subject: INPORTANT!!! PLEASE READ!!!!!!

    THIS IS NO JOKE !!!

    CNN stated that the Government would in two weeks
    time decide to allow or not allow a Charge to
    your phone bill equal to a long distance call
    each time you access the internet.

    The address is
    http://www.house.gov/writerep/

    Please visit the address above and fill out the
    necessary form! This is not a joke....but REAL.
    We all were aware that the Government has been
    pressured by the telephone companies to consider
    such a charge and now it's reality.....

    If EACH one of us, forward this message on to
    others in a hurry, we may be able to prevent this
    injustice from happening!


 The irony is that similar messages warning that the government will make a
 decision "in two weeks" have been circulating since early November, more
 than two months ago.

 The earliest of these coincides with news reports about a ruling under
 consideration by the FCC (not Congress) pertaining to "reciprocal
 compensation" arrangements between local telephone companies. The
 ruling (still pending at this writing) will decide whether calls to ISPs
should
 be regarded as interstate transactions, since Internet traffic is not,
strictly
 speaking, local. It would only affect the rates phone companies charge
 each other for the use of local lines to complete such calls. (See the FCC
 Fact Sheet on this issue for a more thorough explanation.)

 In some quarters, including news organizations such as CNN, this was
 misinterpreted as having an impact on the rates phone companies charge
 ISPs, and thus on consumer access fees. As CNN ominously reported on
 November 7, "The cost of going online could go up significantly if the
 Federal Communications Commission decides that dialing your local
 Internet provider is a long-distance call."

 It was an erroneous assumption. FCC chairman William Kennard had
 announced the opposite just the day before: "The FCC has repeatedly
 stated for the past decade   and is stating again today   that it is NOT
 repealing the ISP exemption that [prevents] Internet service providers from
 paying per-minute charges to local telephone companies."

 Unfortunately, the rumor was well underway. Even now, in spite of plenty
 of information to the contrary on this site and elsewhere, people persist in
 believing the email alerts and continue forwarding them hither and yon with
 righteous indignation.

 Two days ago, the Arizona Republic reported that Congressman Ed
 Pastor had received no fewer than 85 messages of protest since
 November, the bulk of them during the past two weeks. Pastor's office
 responds to the protests by kindly denying the rumor and handing out the
 address of the FCC Web page listed above. Other members of Congress
 are doing the same, and likely will be for quite some time to come.

 "Internet misinformation resembles one of those fires that start up in huge
 piles of tires," observed the author of the Arizona Republic article. "You
 can knock them back, but never really put them out."

 The FCC can vouch for that. Come to think of it, so can I.

 For more information, see:

      No Consumer Per-Minute Charges to Access ISPs
      Dec. '98 Fact Sheet from the FCC
      FCC Chairman's Statement
      Nov. 11 speech to Regulatory Commissioners
      FCC Again Says It Won't Tax Internet
      Reuters news coverage, Nov. 7, 1998
      Internet Access Fees (Again?) (NOT!)
      David Spalding's in-depth 'Hoax du Jour' feature




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