JOIN US FOR THE ELECTRONIC PROTEST!
           CALL FOR A NATIONAL INTERNET SLOWDOWN DAY
       JOIN US FOR THE FIRST ELECTRONIC SIT-IN
       FOR YOUR NETIZENS ELECTRONIC RIGHTS
                   APRIL 1ST, 1998

 
Digital Rights Doomsday Clock
 

WANT TO HELP THE CAUSE???????????

We need people who will help spread the word, organize assitance, contact others and so on! We need your help to preserve your rights before the ISP's take them all away.
Write your representatives about the ISP's and let them know the abuses that the ISP's are doing now! Call for the regulation of the ISP's now!
 

And we have invited the following people to be speakers at the event:
Albert Gore, Vice President of the United States of America
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia
Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
Mr. William Bennett (Accepted Our Invitation )
Mr. William F. Buckley, Noted Conservative
Mr. Sanford Wallace (Accepted our Invitation)
Mr. Arthur C. Clarke, Author
Mr. Conan O'Brien
Mr. Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate (Accepted)
Mr. Steven Jobs of Apple
Mr. Brian Roberts of Comcast
Mr. John Perry Barlow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (Accepted our Invitation)
Mr. Winn Schwartau of InfoWar.com (Accepted our Invitation)
Mr. Scott Charney, US Dept. of Justice
Mr. Ted Turner (Accepted our Invitation)
Mr. Steven Spielburg
Gen. Colin Powell
Mr. Howard Stern
Mr. Steve Case, President of AOL
Mr. Rush Limbaugh, National Commentator
Mr. Emanuel Goldstein, Publisher of 2600
Mr. Louis Gertsner, Chairman of IBM (Accepted our Invitation)
Ms. Cristi Hefner, Chairman of Playboy
Mr. Rich Levin, Host of Computer Talk
                                         (Accepted our Invitation)
 

IMPORTANT NOTE!
Lance Haver of  the Consumers Education and Protective Association has joined this effort! Great to Have the CEPA
onboard!
 
And we now have a list server to keep you informed of the latest news! Add your name and email to be kept informed!

     AND THE OTHER AREAS WE NEED YOUR HELP!

     FIRST NETIZENS ELECTRONIC RIGHTS MARCH

          HELP US PREPARE FOR THE
                         FIRST EVER
     MILLION     MODEM
                 MARCH

            TO THE LIBERTY BELL IN
             PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA
                TO PROCLAIM YOUR
      NETIZENS ELECTRONIC RIGHTS!

TELL OTHERS, SPREAD THE WORD!

WE NEED YOU TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT
YOUR AND OTHER ISP'S OUT THERE THAT:
VIOLATE YOUR RIGHTS,
RIP YOU OFF,
WON'T LET  YOU SEND OUT YOUR MAIL,
CENSOR WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN NOT SEE,
TELL YOU THAT YOU MUST BE IN FRONT OF YOUR
COMPUTER AT ALL TIMES,
CHARGE YOU FOR SERVICES YOU DON'T GET,
REFUSE TO ISSUE YOUR REFUND PROMPTLY,
CHARGE YOUR CREDIT CARD WITHOUT YOUR
PERMISSION,
RESTRAIN YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH,
RESTRICT YOUR BUSINESS,
RESTRICT YOUR HOBBY,
REFUSE TO SEND OUT TO YOUR MAILING LIST,
DEMAND THAT YOU CONFORM TO THEIR RULES,
TRY TO TELL YOU WHAT THEY THINK IS RIGHT,
AND ANY OTHER ABUSE THAT THEY THINK THAT
THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH!

ISP'S ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A SWITCHING
POINT ON A NETWORK! THEY ARE LIKE THE
PHONE COMPANY, EXCEPT THEY ARE NOT
REGULATED, YET!

Does your ISP think that you are a fool? 
More than likely!
 
 

If your ISP treats you like a child or worse, let us
know all about it! 

Email us : ravensceo@ravenswoodinc.com

LET YOUR ISP KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT A FOOL! TELL THEM WHERE THEY CAN GO WITH THEIR USAGE POLICY!

This April 1st, 1998, The National Internet Slowdown Day will be an act
of Electronic Civil Disobedience. The National Internet Slowdown Day is
a protest by us, the users of the Internet to let the ISP's of this country
know that they are being watched. Let your ISP know that you will not subscribe to their usage agreements. Tell your ISP that you will be in contact with your state consumer affairs commission, your state
legislatures and the Congress and Senate to haul them before regulatory boards and make them conform to legal business laws and the laws of
your state and this country. Flood the ISP's with mail and let them know
that you will not be controlled by the greedy ISP's who want your money
but will not give you service!

They take your money and charge you for something that you do not get!

So what is the cure to all of this?

You can voice your opinion here and join our on-line protest.
You can help by sending your comments to us or you can let others know that you are opposed to the controls that ISP's are placing upon you!
Add a link here! Link your site to this site and spread the word
about the National Internet Slowdown Day! 

The National Internet Slowdown Day is proposed to be in the form of an
Electronic Sit-in. That means that we propose that you as a customer, dial into your ISP at 7 AM and tie up their lines, download very large files
(10 Meg or above), and use Real Audio or Real Player, update your Pointcast or other Internet information provider like BackWeb, and do not release that line until 12 midnight of your local time. After all, you pay for unlimited service, you should get it! If your ISP disconnects you, then
have your computer re-dial the ISP until it gets back on their system.
Show the ISP's that we are the Internet, not the ISP's!
Fight Back and Win!

If you have an ISP that restricts your access like this one, (read their silly and illegal usage agreement and then let them know that you will be joining the rest of the country in stopping such illegal actions by these ISP's, then after you have sent them the mail to let them know such things, send us your comments and we will add them to our Web Site so others can be warned about these types of ISP's that rob you, the customer and change the rules when they think that can, and not tell you. iN FACT, READ THE
horrible example of such an agreement. THE ISP USAGE AGREEMENT, AND LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU WILL NOT BE HELD TO THEIR OR ANY OTHER ISP STANDARDS!

Email this ISP with the Illegal Useage Policy and tell them to wake up! 

JOIN THE NATIONAL INTERNET SLOWDOWN DAY!
                                APRIL 1ST, 1998

Tell your ISP that you will not be told what you can look at, e-mail, transmit, CAN NOT AND WILL NOT READ YOUR EMAIL, post, collect, TELL YOU where you can go on-line, spend more than 20 minutes not touching your keyboard, or any other action that you want to do.
We pay them, they do not pay us! Remember that unlimited access, means UNLIMITED ACCESS!
 

 

ISPs are Committing Fraud! One of the most common complaints  concerns the actions,   or inaction, of Internet Service Providers regarding dial-up accounts, dedicated accounts, WWW hosting, etcetera, etcetera. The complaints name ISPs from "fly-by-night operators" to the biggest ISPs in the business but the complaints are surprisingly similar.  The Complaints When I signed up for a month of free access, the ISP demanded my credit card information. After one month, I tried to cancel but the ISP charged my credit card for the next month(s) anyway.  I signed up with an ISP for a dial-up account. After two weeks I still didn't have access but the ISP charged me for those two weeks anyway.  Most of the time when I call my ISP dial-up number I get a busy signal.  Most of the time when I am on the Internet, the ISP connection mysteriously, suddenly fails with no explanation.  I signed up for a year and paid in advance with my credit card. After one year, the ISP automatically charged me for the next year, without getting any authorization from me.  I cancelled my access but the ISP took several months to stop charging my credit card.  I signed up with an ISP but the ISP suddently vanished with no explnanation or refund.  The ISP keeps promising a refund but it never happens.  Every time I call my ISP to complain I get:  a busy signal  voice mail and no-one ever calls me back  transferred to someone who doesn't know anything  transferred to someone who transfers me to someone else who doesn't know anything  disconnected  vague promises  a lecture on the ISP's policy  incompetence  rudeness  arrogance  treated like a techo-imbecile  no service Is This Fraud? I suppose it all comes down to "intent" again. Certainly I assume the "NON-fly-by-night operators" have every intention of providing the service for which they charge, whether you actually want the service or not.  Are they intentionally tricking you out of your money in some cases? They might be. Can you prove it? More than likely. Is it worth your time and effort to sue a big company to retrieve few month's connection charges collected "in error"? Of Course!. Do the ISPs count on this and purposely do it to tens of thousands of people, pocketing the money of those people who can't be bothered trying to get it back? Not at all! But that is fast changing in the world. You could join our class action suit against the ISP's and make them conform to the real world.  Even if ISPs intentionally or negligently make tens of thousands of these "errors", it is fraud. After all, if a consumer kicks up enough fuss, the money is refunded, so the ISP obviously had no intention of keeping the money, right? Wrong! They make you go through a number of "their" policy & procedures that are there to make you give up the money without them having to pay you.  If the consumer says "the hell with it" and doesn't kick up a fuss, that money is a gift to the ISP, isn't it?   What About Busy Signals and Disconnects? This is an interesting question. For over ten years I hosted a busy computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) via dial-up telephone lines. I could only afford two telephone lines and two modems and I considered charging for access - but it occurred to me I might be committing fraud if I did.  After all, there are only 24 hours in a day and the most I could provide would be 48 hours of service. If I signed up 49 subscribers at one hour per day, someone was going to get burned every day. In fact, since most people called between the hours of 3pm and midnight, lots and lots of people were going to get burned every day. I decided it wouldn't be fair, so I didn't charge anyone for anything.  Lately I have noticed that ISPs, including huge companies, are proud to offer one line for every five clients and when they sign people up, they offer 24 hour a day service and unlimited access.  How is it possible for ISPs to deliver on these contracts? If I have 100 telephone lines at 24 hours per day, the most I can offer is 2,400 hours of service. If all 500 of my clients insist on getting what they paid for, I would require 12,000 hours, wouldn't I?  What happens when you call your ISP at 8pm and get a busy signal? Well, you get burned. There is no apology, no refund and no recourse. While you are getting the busy signal, aren't you are simply donating your hard-earned money to strangers, for no known reason? Think about it!

 

 Looking to shut down the free speech of any citizens is not something that should be tolerated by any society. Contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco (415) 436-9333 or 668-7171 and the ACLU in Washington (202) 544-1681 to let the rest of the world know that they are trying to shut down political dissent and free speech.
 
 

 Go to the next page of information!
 Read the proposed Electronic Bill of Rights!
 
 And join us in the first televised 3 Hour Internet Congressional Debate to be held at Independence Hall on PBS.

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