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Well, some people do. There's one fuckwit who I reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (who are a prime example of how useless industry self-regulation can be, but still worth a try) since their code of practice bans spamming, and they have come to the conclusion that the spammers "were not responsible for the recent spate of unsolicated marketing emails that they appeared to have been sending," even though the spammer all but admitted to me on the phone that it was them.

ICSTIS, who regulate the premium rate telephone market - most of my SMS spams are shilling premium rate numbers, claiming that "I have won a prize" or that "someone likes me". ICSTIS have fined many spammers thousands of pounds.

There is also the Advertising Standards Authority who are now accepting complaints.

It is also illegal to use an automated dialler, but the bunch of lazy jobsworths at the Data Protection Agency can't be bothered to prosecute.

The full adjudication can be found on the ASA website.

The complaint had nothing to do with the description as "high speed", although removing those words and adding some qualifying text will fix the situation.

I just find this ironic

The BBC news article says:

"The new code also covers banner and pop-up advertising on the internet, though not a company's claims on its own website."

What do you get when you goto to ASA website? Why a popup of course :)

Rus

Via broadband Internet access, the Streamium MC-i200 connects to the huge number of radio stations currently online

If the box won't connect to the 'huge range... currently on line', but only a smaller, Philips authorised, range, then that's false advertising, which, in Europe, anyway, is illegal. So before wasting time hacking the box it would be worth dropping a line to the Advertising Standards Authority or your national equivalent, or to your local Trading Standards office.

Remember, as Lessig points out, the law is also code, and has APIs you can use.

Has anyone here ever tried demanding a refund from a cinema after unknowingly watching a censored film, on the grounds that they were not showing the film they had claimed to? I'm tempted to try an ASA complaint against a cinema that advertises that it's showing AOTC and doesn't mention the cut.

Microsoft knew about the security hole in XP for 5 weeks yet they continued to tout it as the most secure system ever.

Here in the UK we have the Advertising Standards Authority. They monitor adverts and register complaints. Recently they ruled that the British Telecom ISP could not be allowed to advertise themselves as "fast and reliable", as they had received complaints from users of the service. (BT internet ad withdrawn)

Do you have a similar organisation in the USA?

...all you do is hurt the industry's profit margin...
An industry that survives on sending me things I didn't ask for seems very unfriendly to me and deserves to loose out.

...it will mean less prepad envelopes...
Not a bad thing, if you ask me :-)

...And then you won't have prepaid envelopes for the stuff you actually want to send for.
If it's something I need then I'm happy to pay for it.

...or write to that giant clearinghouse to be taken off the main list.
With the majority of spam I receive, I didn't ask to be on the list in the first place, so the company doesn't deserve to receive any decency from me. Neither does the company who gave them my details. Instead of asking to be taken off the list, would it not make better sense to threaten whoever gave them your personal details with the Data Protection Act? (or your country's equivalent)

If you didn't specifically ask to receive correspondance then the company is not allowed to spam you. Simply having a box on forms that says "tick here if you don't want us to send you stuff" is now illegal in the UK - it must say "tick here if you do want to receive stuff from us.

if you are registered with the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), or equivalent service.

I also find that the majority of spam e-mail senders I've seen can be prosecuted under an Advertising standards law (in the UK the ASA / Advertising Standards Authority will deal with anyone using false statements to advertise their product or service).

Not long ago the BSA were chastised by the Advertising Standards Agency, here in the UK, for using language considered too threatening in these letters and implying that they (the BSA) were an official body. The ASA said that the letters "did not warrant this tone of fear". Interesting eh? Go here for the full adjudication.