Internet shutdown message

[Michael Watson]

One of my friends forwarded this message to me from one of his listservs.
I feel certain that it's a hoax, but was curious to see how widely it has
spread--has anyone else seen it?

-Mike Watson
mwatso at gopher1.library.lsumc.edu 
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>*** Attention ***
>
>It's that time again!
>
>As many of you know, each leap year the Internet must be shut down for 24
hours 
>in order to allow us to clean it.  The cleaning process, which eliminates dead 
>email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better-working and 
>faster Internet.
>
>This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. GMT on Feb. 29 
>until 12:01 a.m. GMT on March 1.  During that 24-hour period, five powerful 
>Internet-crawling robots situated around the world will search the Internet
and 
>delete any data that they find.
>
>In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the 
>following:
>
>1.  Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet 
>        connections.
>
>2.  Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
>
>3.  Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the Internet.
>
>4.  Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
>
>We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and 
>we apologize.  However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more
than 
>made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has 
>been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.
>
>We thank you for your cooperation.
>
>Kim Dereksen
>Interconnected Network Maintenance staff
>Main branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>
>Sysops and others:  Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of Internet 
>users has grown dramatically.  Please assist us in alerting the public of the 
>upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message where your users will be
able 
>to read it.  Please pass this message on to other sysops and Internet users as 
>well.  Thank you.
Michael Watson
mwatso at gopher1.library.lsumc.edu