Sightings, Notes & Updates
03/29/99 - Email alerts are still circulating with the false claim that Congress is about to pass a law which will require Internet users to pay long distance charges for Internet access (see previous article for background).
What's doubly ironic about this now is that Representative Fred Upton of Michigan introduced a bill before Congress last Friday which would specifically ban the above from happening.
The reason? Even though the focal point of the rumor was an FCC matter all along and had nothing to do with Congress, the bogus email campaign resulted in such a torrent of protests to the House of Representatives that Upton and some 60 co-sponsors decided it was time to make it a Congressional matter.
The FCC, which has already vowed that it opposes any such charges being passed on to Internet users, will most likely lend its support to Upton's "Internet Access Charge Prohibition Act." As a senior FCC official remarked anonymously to Wired News, "If [that bill] stops people from sending us letters and emails, that would be a good thing."
Now, if it will only stop those rumors...
Net Access Rumors Prompt Congress to Action
