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If the .govs and .mils feel like they need to be .coms, why the hell does anyone think actual companies would want anything else? Does anyone here know of any .edus that use .com? I think the .orgs seem to stick to .org pretty well. Come on- if I want info on something, I'll find their site and look for info there, not do a separate .info search.

How come nobody's mentioned writing their politicians about this? Try telling THEM how much you don't like sections 1201 and 1202 of Chapter 12 of Title 17 of the U. S. Code. It might be helpful to quote passages from it that you find particularly damning.

Tell them about Sklyarov and Felten v. RIAA and Universal v. Reimerdes and any other of the big cases I missed. Talk about how the law is being abused and violates the First Amendment. Mention that it could harm business. Keep in mind that neither they nor anybody they know actually read Slashdot (as hard as that may be to grasp).

Here's the President's address:

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500-0001

Here's the address for the Supreme Court:

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
Supreme Court of the United States
1 1st St. NE
Washington, DC 20543-0002

Your representative? The House maintains a site here where it will tell you who your rep is after you tell them what your state and ZIP code are. Don't know your ZIP+4 code is? Go to the USPS site and put your address in here to find out. After you find out who it is, their address is on their website.

Senators? The Senate's web site maintains a list of the addresses (and phone numbers) of all current Senators organized by state here

Too cheap to pay the $1.70 in postage to write all these people? E-mail them. I was amazed last week when Tauzin acknowledged an e-mail I sent him with a snail-mail response. Sure, it was a blanket form letter on the topic, but it's a sign that it got read. (I still reccomend paper mail, though, since it's harder to ignore).

At the absolute least, you should realize that bitching and moaning to Slashdot about all this is about as effective as bitching and moaning to a brick wall.

Oh, and one last note: If you DO write them, don't flame them (unless you want another note added to your FBI file and possible surveilance/wiretaps/etc.).

First they try this goofy PosteCS system which, as far as I can tell, is directly trying to compete with encrypted e-mail (we can blame the US, Canada, AND France for this dumb idea).

Then they try this eBillPay idea to send checks through the internet, which is competing with exactly the same service that is offered by most major banks (actually, since everybody seems to call it "eBillPay," I'm not sure who really is in control of it).

And finally in the case of Canada Post, they decide trying to branch out into an entirely new realm: The ISP business. This is really interesting in and of itself because they'll have to outsource at least part of it to the local telecommunications people (I'm not sure what's state-owned up there and what's not).

The USPS seems to be getting some sense and doing more with the net. According to their website, they'll print letters and cards and such and mail them instead of just checks (which sounds a lot like a telegram). But that still has to compete with e-mail.

Personally, I think their best bet is to become digital certificate authorities/digital key signatories/something along those lines. It could be seen as an expansion of their existing services instead of branching out into new ones, as a lot of what they offer is confirmation of mailing, delivery, receipt, insurance, protecting message/package from point A to point B, and so on.

And since it's already a fellony to defraud them and they have their own law enforcement arm, they could do a hell of a lot more than what Verisign could do when they gave a Microsoft certificate to the wrong guy ("I'm sorry, you'll have to download this new Windows patch... We promise it won't happen again!").

Hell, if I can get my passport at the post office...

First they try this goofy PosteCS system which, as far as I can tell, is directly trying to compete with encrypted e-mail (we can blame the US, Canada, AND France for this dumb idea).

Then they try this eBillPay idea to send checks through the internet, which is competing with exactly the same service that is offered by most major banks (actually, since everybody seems to call it "eBillPay," I'm not sure who really is in control of it).

And finally in the case of Canada Post, they decide trying to branch out into an entirely new realm: The ISP business. This is really interesting in and of itself because they'll have to outsource at least part of it to the local telecommunications people (I'm not sure what's state-owned up there and what's not).

The USPS seems to be getting some sense and doing more with the net. According to their website, they'll print letters and cards and such and mail them instead of just checks (which sounds a lot like a telegram). But that still has to compete with e-mail.

Personally, I think their best bet is to become digital certificate authorities/digital key signatories/something along those lines. It could be seen as an expansion of their existing services instead of branching out into new ones, as a lot of what they offer is confirmation of mailing, delivery, receipt, insurance, protecting message/package from point A to point B, and so on.

And since it's already a fellony to defraud them and they have their own law enforcement arm, they could do a hell of a lot more than what Verisign could do when they gave a Microsoft certificate to the wrong guy ("I'm sorry, you'll have to download this new Windows patch... We promise it won't happen again!").

Hell, if I can get my passport at the post office...

First they try this goofy PosteCS system which, as far as I can tell, is directly trying to compete with encrypted e-mail (we can blame the US, Canada, AND France for this dumb idea).

Then they try this eBillPay idea to send checks through the internet, which is competing with exactly the same service that is offered by most major banks (actually, since everybody seems to call it "eBillPay," I'm not sure who really is in control of it).

And finally in the case of Canada Post, they decide trying to branch out into an entirely new realm: The ISP business. This is really interesting in and of itself because they'll have to outsource at least part of it to the local telecommunications people (I'm not sure what's state-owned up there and what's not).

The USPS seems to be getting some sense and doing more with the net. According to their website, they'll print letters and cards and such and mail them instead of just checks (which sounds a lot like a telegram). But that still has to compete with e-mail.

Personally, I think their best bet is to become digital certificate authorities/digital key signatories/something along those lines. It could be seen as an expansion of their existing services instead of branching out into new ones, as a lot of what they offer is confirmation of mailing, delivery, receipt, insurance, protecting message/package from point A to point B, and so on.

And since it's already a fellony to defraud them and they have their own law enforcement arm, they could do a hell of a lot more than what Verisign could do when they gave a Microsoft certificate to the wrong guy ("I'm sorry, you'll have to download this new Windows patch... We promise it won't happen again!").

Hell, if I can get my passport at the post office...

You didn't ask for it and they mailed it to you? According to the post office, it's yours.

No, any law that unfairly favors a local corporation over a foreign one is deemed illegal. UPS is suing becuase it appears to them that Purolator (a Canadian corproation) is getting preferential treatment, in the form of being able to use Canada Post's facilities at a bargain, while UPS can't.

If UPS really felt it could get away with going after any government arm that interferes with its business, there's a far more juicier target here in the US. The US Postal Service is a part of the government (privatize all you want, anything with its own law-enforcement arm is a government body), handles damned near half of the world's card and letter volume, can get a letter from Pureto Rico to Guam in under a week for only $0.34 USD, and has been offering next-day Express Mail and 2-3 day Priority Mail services for several decades now. Don't you think that UPS would like just a little bit of that action?

UPS isn't suing the USPS because it charges the same price to everybody, period. They're after Canada Post because it doesn't seem to be the same way.

The Argentine law applies evenly to all corporations, international or local. That's why the FTAA won't affect it.

No, any law that unfairly favors a local corporation over a foreign one is deemed illegal. UPS is suing becuase it appears to them that Purolator (a Canadian corproation) is getting preferential treatment, in the form of being able to use Canada Post's facilities at a bargain, while UPS can't.

If UPS really felt it could get away with going after any government arm that interferes with its business, there's a far more juicier target here in the US. The US Postal Service is a part of the government (privatize all you want, anything with its own law-enforcement arm is a government body), handles damned near half of the world's card and letter volume, can get a letter from Pureto Rico to Guam in under a week for only $0.34 USD, and has been offering next-day Express Mail and 2-3 day Priority Mail services for several decades now. Don't you think that UPS would like just a little bit of that action?

UPS isn't suing the USPS because it charges the same price to everybody, period. They're after Canada Post because it doesn't seem to be the same way.

The Argentine law applies evenly to all corporations, international or local. That's why the FTAA won't affect it.

No, any law that unfairly favors a local corporation over a foreign one is deemed illegal. UPS is suing becuase it appears to them that Purolator (a Canadian corproation) is getting preferential treatment, in the form of being able to use Canada Post's facilities at a bargain, while UPS can't.

If UPS really felt it could get away with going after any government arm that interferes with its business, there's a far more juicier target here in the US. The US Postal Service is a part of the government (privatize all you want, anything with its own law-enforcement arm is a government body), handles damned near half of the world's card and letter volume, can get a letter from Pureto Rico to Guam in under a week for only $0.34 USD, and has been offering next-day Express Mail and 2-3 day Priority Mail services for several decades now. Don't you think that UPS would like just a little bit of that action?

UPS isn't suing the USPS because it charges the same price to everybody, period. They're after Canada Post because it doesn't seem to be the same way.

The Argentine law applies evenly to all corporations, international or local. That's why the FTAA won't affect it.

A first-class letter comes with a guarentee of privacy, but, if they suspect you are doing something illegal, they can get a warrant to open your mail. Having an anonymous mailbox doesn't necessarily put you under suspicion, but the kind of mail you recieve (lots of legal-sized envelopes marked "photos, do not bend", or maybe lots of cash) may get you unwanted attention.

It would be ideal if we could create a similar system for the electronic world. Encrypted email with the legal protections of first-class mail would be useful, although it may have to be a three-key system, so the government could open email with a warrent, without the sender knowing of it. This may ring some warning bells on SlashDot, but it's better than your boss being able to read every piece of email you send, or the government reading all the un-encrypted email with Carnivore (or whatever they are calling it this week).

A first-class letter comes with a guarentee of privacy, but, if they suspect you are doing something illegal, they can get a warrant to open your mail. Having an anonymous mailbox doesn't necessarily put you under suspicion, but the kind of mail you recieve (lots of legal-sized envelopes marked "photos, do not bend", or maybe lots of cash) may get you unwanted attention.

It would be ideal if we could create a similar system for the electronic world. Encrypted email with the legal protections of first-class mail would be useful, although it may have to be a three-key system, so the government could open email with a warrent, without the sender knowing of it. This may ring some warning bells on SlashDot, but it's better than your boss being able to read every piece of email you send, or the government reading all the un-encrypted email with Carnivore (or whatever they are calling it this week).

A first-class letter comes with a guarentee of privacy, but, if they suspect you are doing something illegal, they can get a warrant to open your mail. Having an anonymous mailbox doesn't necessarily put you under suspicion, but the kind of mail you recieve (lots of legal-sized envelopes marked "photos, do not bend", or maybe lots of cash) may get you unwanted attention.

It would be ideal if we could create a similar system for the electronic world. Encrypted email with the legal protections of first-class mail would be useful, although it may have to be a three-key system, so the government could open email with a warrent, without the sender knowing of it. This may ring some warning bells on SlashDot, but it's better than your boss being able to read every piece of email you send, or the government reading all the un-encrypted email with Carnivore (or whatever they are calling it this week).

The USPS points out in their explanation of the Jan 7th rate increase on their site that "...price increases vary some by class of mail in accordance with the legal mandate for each class of mail to cover its own cost."
While there could be some degree of increased costs on a per-unit basis (overall volume would be down, so efficiencies of scale from the larger volume would theoretically be lost), the increase in cost would be extremely small. Partly because the USPS is overloaded at it's current level, and has lost some degree of efficiency at current volumes which can currently be restored either by reducing volumes, or by purchasing expensive new handling equipment - which is a cost that can be eliminated or delayed by a reduction in junk mail. Also, there would be a man-power and transportation (freight and air cargo costs) savings by reducing the volume of junk mail. Overall, if any effect to private first class mail occured, it would be extremely small.

For the rates calculations, look here, and for the $.31 QBRM number here

For more information than you possibly want, take a look at the US Post Office's US Post Office's BRM manual. Also, you can go through a process asking for refunds against the charge for mail that came in with stamps. Only really large mailing houses or people with cheap labor bother.

Sigh. Guess I didn't want to start work this morning.

The Post Office has an official policy that there is no such thing as junk mail - that all advertising mail is valued by both parties. Check here, and search for "junk".

All these tactics sound cool, but are ineffective. If you want the mail to stop, get off their lists. Junkbusters is a good place to start, and a quick Google search will find others. A truly noble thing would be to lobby your congress person for European-style laws that allow opting out on a national level.

This is probably the best choice for unwanted junk mail. All that mail is an environmental nightmare, killing trees, poisong rivers through the paper-making process, and filling landfills with 70 billion pieces of junk a year. Let 'em know what you want (I still get ThinkGeek mailings), and let 'em know what you can do without.

Postage for "junk mail" does not subsidize anything. It merely keeps my recycle bin full. Check this link to the USPS website.
It's a story about the recent rate increases.
The important phrase to note is: Overall, rates are rising 4.6 percent, although price increases vary some by class of mail in accordance with the legal mandate for each class of mail to cover its own cost.

FBI Internet Fraud Complaint Center: https://www.ifccfbi.gov/complaint/default.asp

U.S. Postal Inspection Service Internet Fraud Claim Form: http://www.framed.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/ MailFraudComplaint.htm

I can tell you from personal experience that the U.S. Mail form, though slow, does get results. A woman who sent me a hot check for an eBay refund coughed up a money order pronto after they contacted her.

And speaking of fraud, check out this to see why I'll never buy anything at NTB (National Tire & Battery) Ever Again...

I would argue that point. Many are pointing out that spam costs the end user because it inflates the IPS's operating costs which are then passed on to the end user. Get rid of spam, reduce the ISP's costs, reduce the end-user's monthly bill, right?

Assuming that is the case, doesn't the same thing sort-of apply to the USPS? Did they not just raise rates again? Isn't it possible or even likely that some of the cost of building up USPS infrastructure to be able to handle all that junk mail ends up being passed on to consumers in the form of postage rate increases?

Ok, maybe not that much. The junk mailers obviously have to pay postage, but I'm wondering if that bulk rate has gone up as much (proportionally) as 1st-class postage has over the years. Just a thought.

Sure, that's not exactly a government website, but I think that all the government websites should have a similar layout (minus the advertisements, of course). Also, consider a MUCH better setup than what exists in some gov sites (IIS4, or even worse, IIS on NT 3.51! Oh My!).

Why does this idea have the same ring in my ear that the USPS internet tax does?

I can't tell from context, but I hope you realize that the USPS Internet Tax is a hoax.&l t;/p>

• Mailing address - Your local post office (US link, consult your directory if not in US)
• Phone Number - UReach, OneBox, eFax
• E-Mail address - Yahoo!, HotMail, Several Others

Not very hard at all, especially since you'll give false information to the latter two groups in order to sign up, and the first one can't sell your info anyway.

---

(copied directly from the US Postal service publication 201, Consumer's Guide to Postal Services & Products, available from the USPS at http://www.usps.com)

Unsolicited Merchandise
Federal law prohibits the shipment of
unordered merchandise. Such a practice
may constitute an unfair trade practice.
Merchandise mailed in violation of United
States Code may be treated as a gift by the
recipient without any obligation to the
sender. The laws governing this practice are
enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
If you believe that you have received unor-dered
merchandise in violation of federal
law, contact the Commission's Bureau of
Consumer Protection at:
BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON DC 20580-0001

(emphasis added was mine. Digital Convergence has no case)

mp3.com would print out the letter and envelope, complete with the submitters home address, and mail it to the poor congressman (all at once...if done right..hehe.) This is possible. The US Postal Service is rolling out a new service called "NetPost Mailing on line". Basically, it combines printing, addressing and postage all in to one convenient system. According to their FAQ, it offers next day turn around. No idea on what the costs are going to be though.

I belive, according to USPS regulations, if you get something sent to you unsolicitated, inform the sender, and they do not pay for return shipping, then it then becomes your property. Unfortunatly, there isn't much on this on the USPS website, but at Federal law prohibits the shipment of unordered merchandise. Such a practice may constitute an unfair trade practice. Merchandise mailed in violation of United States Code may be treated as a gift by the recipient without any obligation to the sender.

You're absolutely correct. Any unsolicited merchandise you recieve is yours to keep without charge to do with what you will.

Here is the Postal Service guide to preventing mail fraud in PDF format (it doesn't say much about this other than anything sent to you unsolicited is yours to keep).

Unsolicited Merchandise Federal law prohibits the shipment of unordered merchandise. Such a practice may constitute an unfair trade practice. Merchandise mailed in violation of United States Code may be treated as a gift by the recipient without any obligation to the sender. The laws governing this practice are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. If you believe that you have received unordered merchandise in violation of federal law, contact the Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection at:

BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON DC 20580-0001

http://new.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pub s/201/pub20110.pdf

N.B.: The USPS is now a .COM. I guess since they lost so much money the last quarter, they'd be cool, too.

If you can package them well enough to be proof against the apes, the U.S. Postal Service will do it reasonably (if you're in the U.S.---sorry, rest of world :-).

See the ``book rate'' page for details---you can ship 70 pounds for 31 cents/lb., anywhere in the U.S. Depending on distance, the ``bound printed matter'' rate might work---sounds like a book to me---but they limit you to 15 lbs./package.

My sisters have used it for exactly your purpose (getting books home from college) with great success.

If you can package them well enough to be proof against the apes, the U.S. Postal Service will do it reasonably (if you're in the U.S.---sorry, rest of world :-).

See the ``book rate'' page for details---you can ship 70 pounds for 31 cents/lb., anywhere in the U.S. Depending on distance, the ``bound printed matter'' rate might work---sounds like a book to me---but they limit you to 15 lbs./package.

My sisters have used it for exactly your purpose (getting books home from college) with great success.

(from the MSNBC article):
Federal law prohibits the Postal Service from selling any of its consumer information, and it says it won't share any of the data with a third party

For all practical purposes, USPS sells a list of customers who have recently submitted change of address forms.

I moved about a year ago, and didn't submit a change of address. My snailmail box was blissfully junkmail free for 7 months. At that point, I put in a change of address form, and almost immediately I started getting junk sent directly to my new address, most of it targetted to new home owners or people moving into my area.

USPS has a vested interest in junk mail delivery. I truly believe they will use any available method to sleeze around restrictions on providing customer info to advertisers. In this case, the Privacy Act Note says:

Filing this form is voluntary. However, your mail cannot be forwarded without an order. If filed, your new permanent address will be provided to individuals and companies who request it, but this will occur only when the requester is already in possession of your name and old mailing address.

Since junk mailers already have huge address lists, all they need to do is submit their list, and get back a targeted list of "recently moved" consumers.

The USPS eliminated the operations subsidy in 1983.

According to the 1999 Annual Report, the USPS had:
Operating Revenue of $63B
Operating Expenses of $62B

for a 3.3% margin. This margin is known to rise and fall in a roughly three-year cycle tied to postage stamp rate increases.

The US Government contributed $3 Billion in capital outlays, i.e. buildings, equipment, vehicles, and other permanent purchases. Clearly, though, this could be handled completely privately with a small increase in postage rates.
----

Congress wanted them to become more like a business; we the people went along with it. So, you can't really blame them for trying to identify new lines of business. Read their annual report, or their read their five year strategic plan, or any other material on their newly-redesigned website. First class letter volume is shrinking like Alice, baby, and they've got to find something else to give the Grow Me elixir to.

Congress wanted them to become more like a business; we the people went along with it. So, you can't really blame them for trying to identify new lines of business. Read their annual report, or their read their five year strategic plan, or any other material on their newly-redesigned website. First class letter volume is shrinking like Alice, baby, and they've got to find something else to give the Grow Me elixir to.

It's not, moron, try: http://new.usps.COM


--------

This looks like it could very well be an add-on in that if you don't want to recive your mail at their site, they will sneakernet it to you.

If these two projects are entirely unrelated, then there is a very large duplication of effort problem at hand.

---

Well, they've been providing some email services since the end of April, so it wouldn't be too surprising to see a full-scale roll out. Especially when you realize that everyone and everyone is offering free email addresses these days. And don't count out attempts by bloated agencies to find new ways to expand their purviews and jurisdictions.

Don't believe the /. hype, Java is a nice language for the web and for RAD. And don't think syntax issues are going to hold a language up, the most used language by far is VB, and that is one ugly language.
Anyway, here are two java sites, Hallmark.com and The United States Postal Service.

That was awfully fast... they're already planning stamps of the '90s over at this page. They have a stamp about sport utility vehicles. which I find appalling. Are we going to remember the '90s as a bunch of soccer moms plowing through good-natured citizens' passenger cars?

Fat chance indeed. Try this link...

Maybe the answer is for the PO to provide an API to allow the people to query the "official" database in real time over the net. Fat chance of that ever happening.

Gee! What a great idea.

it has a .com instead of a .gov

Actually the USPS website is available at both http://www.usps.com and http://www.usps.gov, probably to end the possible confusion caused by differing sites like http://www.whitehouse.com and http://www.whitehouse.gov