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U.S. National Do-Not-Call Registry is Law
extra88 writes "Bush has signed the
Do-Not-Call Registry into law. The registry will be run by the FTC and funded by fees collected from telemarketers. Telemarketers can be fined up to $11K for calling someone on the list. Politicians, surveys (loophole?) and charities are exempt from using the list. The FCC oversees certain industries (airlines, banks and phone companies) and will have to "buy in" to the registry for it to affect those industries. Slashdot covered this story when the bill went through House of Representatives."
My first thought was that this list could cut down my telemarketing calls received by about 90%. But what is that you say? It may not apply to phone companies? Well, I suppose cutting my telemarketing calls received by 5% is still some sort of progress.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
According to the ftc's website http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/ju mp.html
It'll be phased in over 8 weeks region by region starting in July. You can register either by a toll-free call, or online (Yea!).
can be found here http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/in dex.html.
[/end whore]
Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
First, your testimony is evidence, and that is probably sufficient for most cases. It is ancient technology, examining people as they tell their stories, but it works in most cases.
Second, you can take a photograph of your calling-line display.
Third, if they leave a message on your answering machine, you can take a recording to court.
Fourth, you can keep a log of unwanted calls you receive. This is better than your testimony alone, because it shows you are being careful and are making accurate records.
Fifth, many telemarketing suits involve multiple calls. You can give the judge a list of people you spoke to, on what dates, what you told them, and so on. The combined facts make it very unlikely that the defendant did not call you as you claim, and you only need a preponderance of the evidence to prevail.
Sixth, you can ask your friends and neighbors if they received similar calls. Any telemarketer violating the do-not-call list is calling everyone, so you will find other witnesses to verify your report.
Seventh, if it gets to that point is important enough, you can subpoena their records and so on. But then you are into real discovery and may not be able to use small claims court.
I do work for a company that does market-research. Read the law - there are reasonably strict restrictions on what counts as charities, surveys, etc. I may be in the minority but I have done focus groups and do reply to some surveys if I'm not otherwise occupied (well, I used to - working for a research company disqualifies me for most of the now). I hardly think that sending a FREE product, gift certificate, etc. as a thank-you makes a survey somehow evil. (I should note, we hardly do any call-out work and on the rare occasions we do we adhere strictly to the allowed hours and other restrictions.)
Now, you want to see a loophole - how about the exemption for anyone with whom you have a "business relationship". Bought a widget from me in the last 18 months - I'm exempt. I called you for product info in the last three months - you can feel free to start calling me whether I'm listed or not. Fortunately even in those cases (and I think with charities as well) you can tell that specific business/charity to stop calling and they must honor it.
Better still, they must start transmitting caller ID info - no more "ID unavailable" and must have a person on the line within 2 seconds of your answer (the telemarketers hate this since they can't cram in as many calls per person per hour with their predictive dialers).
The other giant loophole is that there are a variety of exemptions for financial institutions, airlines and telecom companies but it appears from the FTC web site that this could be just procedural in that they are already regulated by other agencies and it just needs some interagency coordination to bring those into the fold as well. Still, those exemptions bear watching. Perhaps someone more familiar than I am with the laws would care to comment.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
The provisions for surveys are meant to prevent the government from fighting itself. The government, at various levels, spends billions of dollars per year funding survey research. My employer (the University of Wisconsin) recieves millions each year from the state alone.
If you feel a survey is not of academic nature then the call is illegitimate (per Wisconsin law) and the caller can still be punished. Since Wisconsin's do-not-call list went into effect at the beginning of this year we have recieved phone calls from various areas of the government ensuring our credibility.
"Amazing what Republicans not in the pockets of trial lawyers do when they run the show."
5 Republicans voted against, and 2 Democrats did.Look for youself.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
As a sociologist, I really do need to call "random" people, and can't consider a survey consisting only of telephone owning people who are willing to take a survey and who are clueless as to the do-not-call registry a valid sample space... There would be no real way to judge many of the statistics taken for granted these days without the ability to call and survey just about anyone. I would hate to think that all of /. would be excluded form any future informational research (according to the latest figures, 0.1% of the US population works in computing, and all of them at Microsoft).
They don't necessarily have the right to call you out of the blue, but if the information is to be statistically valid that's exactly what they have to do. And it is in the public's interests to have accurate statistics (not that there aren't a lot of rigged polls going on).
As for charities? I'm betting they originally wanted to exclude all "nonprofits," but realized that the ACLU and many other political groups are non-profit but not charities. Hence, gain the support of your friendly local Goodwill and keep your iron grip on politics.
The ______ Agenda
From http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/dncalrt .htm
7. What about telemarketers calling from overseas? Are they covered? Won't you have difficulty enforcing your national "do not call" registry outside the U.S?
Telemarketers calling U.S. consumers are covered, regardless of where they are calling from. Enforcement outside the U.S. is not as easy as it is at home, but it is not unusual for the FTC to take law enforcement action - and to prevail - against telemarketers calling from outside the U.S. Moreover, if a company within the U.S. solicits sales through an overseas professional telemarketer, that U.S. company is liable for any TSR violations of the telemarketer. Initiating enforcement action against such companies is not a problem for the FTC.
UK's TPS
It actually works very well, and companies DO get into trouble if they violate the policy. It has not hindered tele-marketing at all, except that it has put an end to a lot of silly 'double glazing companies' from misusing the system by making them buy the list (which is quite expensive and must be upgraded frequently).
I am on the list, but most people do not know it exists. I have not recieved any crappy calls since signing on, but still recieve texts as they dont come under the same laws (a recent slashdot story
SMS Story
hints that texts may soon be part of this law, however, which is great!). There is also a snail-mail equivalent. Nice to see the self proclaimed 'free world' catching up with the other side of the pond!
well, it is funny, but in reality, you have to watch what you say on the phone. If she ever says something that can be interpreted as a yes, then boom, you've just bought whatever they're selling. Even when you are on the phone, be very careful about how you phrase your responses, there are some very, very unscrupulous telesales people out there. (Yes, I am a salesperson. No, I don't call people and bug them.)