WINDWARD INSTRUMENTS JOINS THE ORA

Windward Instruments is now a supporting member of the Online Retailing Alliance (ORA). The ORA is part of the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) which is focused on legislative issues facing merchants who market directly via TV, Radio, and the Internet. All Windward Instruments properties, including BellClocks.com, and OceanClocks.com support the ORA.

Windward Instruments agrees with the core belief of the ORA, which is the belief that customers who use the internet to make purchases of products maintain free and open access to ALL merchants. Further, the ORA fully supports the open internet project, to protect internet users from the so-called "email tax" or fee, which would see charges for every email sent.

ORA activities are aimed at protecting online and direct merchants from government and telecommunications company interests. These interests seek to limit customer access to only companies willing to pay for customers, thus eliminating smaller businesses without the financial means to compete. This would see a handful of companies dictating pricing on nearly every product currently available online, doing away with customer choice, or best pricing.

Government interests, specifically the Governors Association, has pressured Congress for years to force online retailers to collect sales tax for every individual tax district in the U S. This would mean that every customer purchase online would be subject to that customer's sales tax, be it state or local. Obviously this would increase pricing to customers who currently enjoy savings by purchasing online, if their local municipality requires tax.

Windward Instruments urges all internet users to take part.