Normally, any message which begins "This Is No Joke" (or words of similar import) can be accepted with the same degree of trust as those facts cited by Dave Barry prefaced by "I'm Not Making This Up." or by a lawyer who starts out by saying "Trust Me." Doug Norwood -----Original Message----- From: Julie Young <youngj2@hotmail.com> To: NCUNION-L@rootsweb.com <NCUNION-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 9:18 AM Subject: [NCUNION-L] Internet Access- HOAX Please do not forward that message. It is a hoax 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. 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 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com