This can't be good...

[Benjamin]

I just recieved a newsletter called goodies to go (www.htmlgoodies.com)

and look what I found:

What if you had to pay a long distance charges if you visit a
server in China the next time to go surfing? A bill before the
California Public Utilities Commission might make that a
reality. The bill would make ISP attachments subject to
charges equal to making a phone call. As it stands, all ISP
connections are currently being treated as local traffic. That
doesn't make for big long-distance profits. If I see a result
on the vote, I'll let you know.

I hope that doesn't pass, that would suck so much....

I would have to stop visiting VBWorld....

[HarryW]

If that happened, it would kill the net for all but business use. There's no way I could afford to pay long distance charges for using the net. It's expensive enough already!

[Benjamin]

I don't think it's going to happen tho... people would be really pissed... they would rebel... chaos... terror... havoc.... ummm... err..
well, it could happen

[SteveCRM]

Yeah what If we wanted to buy something on lets say ebay...you would have to pay just to get to ebay for some people!

[Guv]

This looks like a hoax. I do not think there is any such bill being proposed anywhere.

There are a lot of phoney warnings being sent around. You can ignore anything that does not seem reasonable.

If such legislation were proposed, don't you think it would be worth a few paragraphs in your local newspaper? Don't you think AOL or your ISP would be notifying you and asking you to scream to your congressman/woman?

[JPRoy392]

I've seen that e-mail for months. I think that it is a hoax, although it is not impossible that such a bill could be passed. Could you imangine how damaging that would be for businesses in California? You would probably get a message saying: "The server you are about to connect to is located in California and you are going to have to pick up the long distance charges. Do you agree?" 75% of the people will say no. That would damage the businesses in California and people would go elsewhere (to other auctions besides eBay).
If this law was going to be passed as a federal law, that would be something different. I think that it would be a terrible disservice to the citizens of the U.S. We would loose more foregin business then ever before. (remember in the 80's when so many car manufacturers decided to go south to Mexico for the cost of labor?) That would be nothing. Internet companies would have to locate to exotic locations like Cancun and Rio de Janero.... Wait this would be a good thing!!!! Ha Ha Ha!