>The .gov is after UCE -- UNSOLICITED being the keyword here. If it's >against the law to call someone's phone line UNSOLICITED, then it should >be for email too.
It is not currently against the law ANYWHERE in the US (that I am aware of, but these laws change quick, so I could be wrong), to telephone someone unsolicited. Phone numbers, to put it in spam analogy, are all considered opt-OUT. Until you tell them they can't call you, they can. There are some states, (and cities) that are enacting Do Not Call lists. Where you can sign up with a central list, and that makes you opt-out for all calls. "All" is used very loosely here, in reality, it opts you out of almost nothing, because of loose definitions of what qualifies as a banned call vs who is calling you and where they got your number... if you bought batteries at Radio Shack and gave them your phone number, you just allowed them to ignore wide area DNC lists. Market Research, and fund drive/donation calls also are allowed to ignore DNC lists, as are any companies and their subsidiaries with whom you do business. The little known issue with these laws is they are almost 100% un-enforcable. There are laws already on the books that you can not prevent interstate commerce. So if NJ passes its DNC law (they want a state wide DNC list, that all telemarketers must check their lists against before making calls, regardless of what state the call orginates from), the law will actually be in violation of a preexisting federal law, and thus will be unenforcable. Someone from Florida can call my to their hearts content, and I can't stop them. I can file suit, they can be found guilty in NJ court, and they can STILL call me all they want, because NJ is powerless to make them stop, because the federal goverment won't allow you to stop interstate commerce. (The good news on the NJ law is, they plan to go after companies represented by the caller, regardless of who made the call. So if AT&T subcontracts to a group in FL, and they are found in violation of the DNC law, NJ will go after AT&T because they are the one being represented by the caller... since AT&T does business in NJ, that gives the state some bite) If the FCC's DNC regulation passes, THAT at least gives some hope by moving the teeth to the federal level. Of course, it is getting increasingly cheaper to place the calls from Canada or Mexico, or other out of country locations... so again, good luck enforcing the law (and if these DNC laws do start passing, you can bet telemarketers will just move the call centers out of the country, it will be cheaper to pay the marginally higher phone rates, than to maintain the updated DNC databases). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
