A ROSS PEROT FOR THE MODEM-MINDED

How many people know that the recently passed federal budget
package includes a special tax on modems?
   Too many, according to James Leonard. The tax doesn't exist, of
course, but it's an example of the kind of misinformation that gets
spread over the nation's computerized bulletin boards.
   With a growing subscriber base of around 3 million personal
computer users, various types of online services "can spread these
rumors like firestorms across the electronic global community,"
says Leonard, a spread sheet specialist who lives in Seattle.
   To douse those flames - and to help ensure that modem users
aren't targeted by a tax - he has set out to form a group called
the International Association of Modem Users. "THIS NOT A HOAX!"
shouts his invitation, which he dispatched on six bulletin board
systems two weeks ago.
   As Leonard notes, bulletin board users are nothing: if not
responsive. When the owners of Cambridge-based Channel 1 opened
up a forum for discussion of their dispute with the state
over telecommunications taxes - with the hyperbolic
claim that the Department of Revenue is "attempting to
tax the flow of information"  indignant users couldn't
log on fast enough.
  Among other things, they used the opportunity to de-
clare their devotion to Libertarian politics, to warn gov-
ernment "to keep its cotton-pickin' hands off the infor-
mation superhighway" and to diagnose the Department
of Revenue's behavior as "immoral, indecent and evil."
One suggested that the state's behavior befits "the old Soviet
Union, before it collapsed."
     Leonard, who apparently prides himself on being
sleepless, in Seattle hangs out online every night from
5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. During that time, he says  he's picked
Up all manner of inaccurate reports about state efforts to
tax various aspects of modem usage. But he believes that
the fundamental fear is based in a simple truth: "It's be-
ing driven by cities and states, who are all looking for new
revenue."
    For now, Leonard is handing out free memberships
to anyone who wants to join his group  10 days after his
appeal went out, he had received 175 responses, from as
far away as Thailand - and he expects to spend time try-
ing to verify rumors members hear about relevant legislation. As
the grass-roots group gets organized, though, he will begin
charging dues. He already compares his fledgling movement to United
We Stand, Ross Perot's organization. "I think I am like him," he
says,"but I don't have a drawl."
   Nevertheless, he does believe he's the first to tap into
a potentially powerful constituency. "Modem use crosses
all classes of people," Leonard says, "and they all strong-
ly believe it's their right to communicate freely."
                              JOSH HYATT

