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In Reply to: Re: Postage charge for E-mail ?? posted by Trustno1 on June 12, 1999 at 07:53:49:
they could tax the isps but they would not be able to tell the amount of email. email is a file transfer, the computer treats these the same way. for example, when I upload files to my home page it is a file transfer. At first these transfers where handled via ftp. Now these transfers can be handled via http. I am sure they can make a program to record the types of files, but one could also make a program to change file types for email. Instead of an extension of txt, one could change it to exe and send it where by not haveing to pay a tax for the txt file transfer.Also the anonomous emailer I have routes the file thruogh 3 different servers to make back tracking almost impossible. I am not saying that a tax on email is impossible. Just that it would be very hard to enforce. A flat tax would be the easiest but would still be able to be got around by computer programers, who in turn would give it to everyone.Just some food for thought.